Name
Frank Tingey Martin
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/07/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
B/2070
Rifle Brigade
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 46 - 48 and 50.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the "Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial" in Belgium to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Plaque in doorway, St Matthew’s Church Memorial, Oxhey, Street Shrine, Harrow Weald, Middlesex
Pre War
Frank Tingey Martin was born in Harrow Weald, Middlesex in 1888, was the youngest child of James Martin, a Gardener and Hannah Martin, (nee Joiner). He was baptised at All Saints’ Church, Harrow Weald, on 18 November 1888.
His father was a domestic gardener, working at one time as head gardener at ‘Waldoes’, a property linked to the Waldo family, who had been landowners in the area of Harrow and Pinner from the 1680s. Frank’s mother worked as a dairy woman and he had two sisters Alice and Charlotte.
1891 Census records Frank aged (2), living with his parents, sisters Alice (7), and Charlotte (5), at The Lodge, Southfield Park, Harrow, Middx.
By 1901 the family had moved to Park Gardens, Harrow Weald, Middx. Frank was at school; Alice was working as a Dairymaid and Charlotte a Dressmaker.
1911 Census records Frank now aged (22), working as a Printers Machine Minder still living at home with his parents at 3 Red Lion Cottages, College Road, Harrow on the Hill, Middx.
He served a seven-year apprenticeship with G Palmers & Sons in Wealdstone.
In 1909 he joined the Wealdstone Football Club and was the 1st, XI Vice-Captain in the 1913/14 season.
He remained single and, prior to 1913, he enlisted in the 9th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment T F, from which he was discharged after two years' service by purchase, not by pension.
Wartime Service
In August 1914 he enlisted with the 7th battalion of the Rifle Brigade at St Paul’s churchyard, Middlesex and served as Corporal B2070. His papers state: ‘If the war is over in less than 3 years, you will be discharged with all convenient speed’.
He landed at Boulogne, France with his Battalion, on 19th May 1915. He fought on the Western Front and was declared missing on 30 July 1915, later assumed killed in action. He is commemorated at Ypres at the Menin Gate Memorial, panel 46 -48 & 50.
Frank was a bell-ringer at St Matthew’s Church, Oxhey and there is a plaque in the doorway to commemorate him and John Stewart Macdonald.
Additional Information
The 7th Battalion, Rifle Brigade was part of 41 Brigade, 14 Division. Information provided with kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
