Name
Frank Albert Lawson
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1918
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
30690
King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)
1st/5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PERNES BRITISH CEMETERY
I. D. 23.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath, Not on the Berkhamsted memorials, Not on the Northchurch memorials
Pre War
Born in Northchurch in 1892, Frank Albert Lawson was the second of nine children, one of whom died in infancy, born to Harry Spencer and Elizabeth (nee Gotzheim) Lawson. Harry and Elizabeth were married in 1890 in the Leighton Buzzard registration district.
At the 1901 Census, the family were living at 14, Windmill Lane in Bushey Heath with five children, Florence, Frank, Nellie, Edith and Amelia, who are aged 11, 8, 4, 3 years and 1 month respectively. Harry and Elizabeth are aged 29 and 30 and Harry is working as a painter. The birthplaces are given as Northchurch (in the Berkhamsted registration district) for Harry and Frank, Leighton Buzzard for Elizabeth and Florence, and Bushey Heath for the Nellie, Edith and Amelia.
At the 1911 Census, the family were still living at 14 Windmill Lane in Bushey Heath and Harry is still working as a (house) painter. Some of the children, including Frank, are no longer present, which left Edith, Marjorie, Winnifred, Arthur and Alfred. Their ages are 13, 10, 8, 5 and 3 years and, apart from Edith, they were all born in Bushey Heath. Frank was now nineteen and was employed as a groom in domestic service at Hill House Stables, Harrow Weald, where he boarded with George Hill, a coachman, and his family.
Wartime Service
Frank enlisted in Woolwich and served as Private 30690 in the 1st/5th Battalion of the Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment). He died of wounds on 23 April 1918, aged 25 and was buried in Pernes British Cemetery in France.
He is also commemorated on the Bushey memorial and at St Peter’s Church, Bushey Heath.
The Register of Soldiers’ Effects identifies his Mother Elizabeth as the beneficiary for his pension and death grant.
Additional Information
The personal inscription on his headstone is “GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN NEVER SHALL HIS MEMORY FADE FATHER, MOTHER BROTHERS AND SISTERS”.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
