Name
Frank Amos Darton*1
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/10/1916
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
175320
Canadian Infantry
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VIMY MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
*1 If we have the right man then he was the son of the late Amos and Mary Ann Darton.
He was born in Kimpton on the 17th July 1884. Before enlisting he was a car mechanic. He enlisted on the 5th October 1915 in Niagara, Ottowa.
His enlistment papers record him as unmarried. Aged 31 years and 2 months, he was 5’ 8 ½” tall, with a red complexion, blue eyes and red hair. He had a tattoo of the crucifixion on his left arm, a flower and King Edwards’s head on his right hand.
Wartime Service
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission only record one F.A. Darton and he held the Regimental number 175320 in the 3rd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment), having enlisted in Niagara, Ottawa, Canada. This unit came from Toronto and at the time of his death was part of the 1st Brigade, 1st Canadian Division of the Reserve Army. No connection with Hitchin has been established and he could not be identified on the Medal Rolls.
On the 8th October 1916 the 3rd Battalion was at the extreme left of the attack on the Le Transloy ridges. The Canadians were positioned near Destremont Farm approximately half a mile east of Martinpuich, south-south-west of Bapaume in the Somme Sector. The area was a mass of grey slime and water pools from the incessant rain.
He has no known grave and is remembered on the Vimy Memorial to the Missing in the Pas de Calais in France.
Additional Information
*1 The Lawson Thompson Scrapbooks state that he was in the Cambridgeshire Regiment, but his name does not appear in the ‘Soldiers died’ database.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
