Name
Frederick Alan Rankin
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Border Regiment
attd. "D" Bn. Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
WANCOURT BRITISH CEMETERY
I.D.23
France
Headstone Inscription
DEARLY LOVED SON OF JANE F. & THE LATE JAS.RANKIN
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Welwyn Garden City memorials, St Bees School Roll of Honour, Cumbria
Pre War
Frederick Alan Rankin was born in 1897 in Oxton, Birkenhead, Cheshire, the youngest son of James and Jane Frances Rankin and one of five children. His parents had married in Birkenhead in 1889.
His father died in 1898 and on the 1901 Census, he was living with his widowed mother and siblings at 6 Victoria Mount, Oxton, where his mother was said to be "living on own means". His stepsister Margaret (from his father's first marriage) was also living with them.
A newspaper report following his death stated that he was educated at Ashford House School, Birkenhead and was later a Boarder at St Bees School, (Cumbria) on the 1911 Census.
Wartime Service
Frederick enlisted into the 10th Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Scottish) in August 1914 and served as Private 3044. A newspaper report suggested that he went to France in November 1914, although medal cards indicate that he arrived in France on 23 January 1915. The newspaper also said he was invalided home in March 1915.
He obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant with the Border Regiment in September1916 and was killed in action on 23 April 1917 (aged 20). He is buried in Wancourt British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
Probate was granted to his mother on 13 Sept 1917 with effects of £947 18s 8d. A war gratuity of £12 was granted to his mother who also received pay owing of £49 14s 5d, She later moved to 2 Valley Road, Welwyn Garden City, Herts and died in 1946 in Chalfont St Peter, Bucks. His brother 2nd Lt Frank Leslie Rankin of the Liverpool Scottish, was seriously wounded in January 1917, having been buried following an explosion of a trench mortar. He survived and eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel when he was recommissioned in WWII. N.B. CWGC spells his first name without a 'k' but this seems to be an error and the same spelling is not used on other records.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
www.historyofwallasey.co.uk,
