Name
Frank Mead
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/11/1917
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
21854
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
WIMEREUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY
VI. G. 3A.
France
Headstone Inscription
WE FEEBLY STRUGGLE THEY IN GLORY SHINE
UK & Other Memorials
Great Gaddesden Village Memorial, Marlowes Methodist Church Memorial, Marlowes, Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials
Pre War
Frank Mead was born in 1898 in St Margarets near Great Gaddesden, the only child of Frederick and Fanny Mead, and baptised at St John the Baptist, Great Gaddesden, Hemel Hempstead on 21 August 1898.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Nettleden, Nr Great Gaddesden, Herts, where his father was working as a Stockman on a Farm. They had moved to St Margarets, Hemel Hempstead by 1911 when Frank was a scholar and his father was working as a Farm Labourer.
(N.B. St Margarets is a hamlet near Great Gaddesden)
Wartime Service
Frank was called up under the Military Service Act in 1916 when he reached the age of 18. He enlisted at Bedford was sent to Felixstowe for basic training. He was sent to France with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, probably in June 1917.
He would have seen action during the Third Battle of Ypres in early October and were subjected to six days of heavy shelling. Later in the month they fought at Passchendaele (a battle notable for horrendous conditions due to constant shelling and heavy rainfall). By 28 October, the war diary records 2 Officers wounded and 101 other ranks killed or wounded. Frank was one of those wounded in action and had been moved to hospital at Wimereux, near Bologne, for treatment and possible repatriation to England, but he died of his wounds on 3 November 1917 and was buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs F Mead, St Margarets, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, ordered his headstone inscription: “WE FEEBLY STRUGGLE THEY IN GLORY SHINE”. His mother received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £4 5s 10d. She also received a pension of 9 shillings and 6d, in 1918, later rising to 15 shillings a week. N.B. there are two candidates for the F Mead named on the Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial. One is Frank Mead of Great Gaddesden and the other Frederick Mead of Boxmoor. On balance Frederick is the more likely as his widow was living at an address in Hemel Hempstead town on CWGC and pension records.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
w.ww.dacorumheritage.org.uk, ww.w.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
