Name
Frank Bland
1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/10/1914
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
7458
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Panel 10 and 11
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Burnham Green memorials, Not on the Hinxworth memorial, Layer de la Haye Memorial, Essex
Pre War
Frank Bland was born in 1883 in Hinxworth, Herts, the son of William and Marion Bland and one of eleven children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Harmer Green, Welwyn, Herts, where his father was working as a cowman. By 1901 they were living at Burnham Green, near Datchworth, Herts and Frank was then working as a bricklayer's labourer.
He married Charlotte Curtis in 1905 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his wife and two daughters, Winifred and Hilda, in Church Road, Layer-del-la Haye, Colchester, Essex and working as a farm labourer. His widowed father in law was living with them. They later had two more daughters, Dorothy and Gladys.
According to a newspaper report in the Hertfordshire Mercury, he was living in Burnham Green, nr Welwyn, prior to enlistment, but SDIGW states he was in Layer-del-la-Haye.
Wartime Service
Frank served with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in France from 30 August 1914 and was probably one of a draft of 90 men which joined the Battalion in the field on 4 September. He would have seen action in the Battles of the Marne and Aisne in September, followed by the Battle of La Bassee in October.
He was killed in action at Festubert on 25 October 1914 aged 33. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His widow Charlotte received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £3 4s 1d. She also received a pension of 25 shillings a week for herself and her four daughters.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
www.bedfordregiment.org.uk,
