Name
Frank Halsey
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/09/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
9586
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LABOURSE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
French row, behind row A. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Diocese - Book of Remembrance, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Diocese of St Albans - ROH, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Not on the Berkhamsted memorials (*1)
Pre War
Frank Halsey was born in 1891 in Great Gaddesden, nr Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of Henry (Harry) and Lizzie Halsey and was baptised in Great Gaddesden on 20 December 1891. He was one of nine children, but one had died in infancy.
On the 1901 Census the family were living in the village of Great Gaddesden where his father was an agricultural labourer. Although the rest of the family remained in Great Gaddesden in 1911, Frank was recorded on the Census as a 19 year old Private with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, living at the Maida Barracks, Stanhope Lines, Aldershot, Surrey. He had enlisted into the Bedfordshire Regiment and his regimental number of 9586 suggests he joined in 1910.
Wartime Service
Frank was already a serving soldier at the outbreak of war, and was sent to France with the 2nd Battalion on 6 October 1914. He was promoted, eventually reaching the rank of Lance Sergeant and would have fought in the Battles of Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Loos. It was in the Battle of Loos (25 September to 8 October 1915), that he would have been wounded and died of his wounds on 26 September 1915. He is buried in Labourse Communal Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother Elizabeth received a war gratuity of £7 and pay owing of £18 9s. A pension was refused, reason unknown.
*1 The St Albans Cathedral Diocese records suggest a connection to Berkhamsted (Great Berkhamsted - Rural). We believe that we have the correct man however, these records identify him as a Quartermaster Sergeant not a Lance Sergeant.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
