Name
Frank Crawley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Frank appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born on September 5th 1896 to Henry Charles (Charlie) and Minnie Crawley (née Cherry) of Middle Farm, Crabtree Lane (roughly where 16 Crabtree Lane is today). The 1911 census confirms that they had ten children, one of whom had died. The children were: Harry (b 1881 or 1882), Annie Jane (bapt 1885), Albert Vincent (b 1886), Florence Rose (b 1888), Alice (b 1891), Helen (possibly Ellen, b c1893), Milly (b 1892 or 1893), Katie (b 1895), Frank (b 1896) and Phillip (b 1902). Which child died is not yet known. The youngest, Phil, was baptised at St. Mary's in 1902. Harry, Frank’s older brother, was killed in the war and is listed on the Village War Memorial.
Before the war, he worked for Mr Franklin of Walnut Tree Farm. Frank’s father died in 1915, aged fifty-six, just a few months before Frank joined up. He joined the 10th Bedfordshire Regiment on June 16th 1916 and would have been nineteen. Three months later he was drafted to France. Sometime in 1917, probably September, he was wounded, gassed and returned to England. Later, he was transferred to the South Staffordshire Regiment and was wounded again in late 1917, badly enough to be returned to a hospital in Rochdale. However, by November 17th he had recovered sufficiently to be able to return home on hospital leave.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
