Name
Frank Victor Baker
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/06/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
202810
Essex Regiment
11th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
I. R. 45.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
He resided in Hitchin and had worked for the Hitchin Urban District Council. His home was at 5, Barnard's Yard, Hitchin and he had a wife.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford on the 19th April 1915 and was initially given the Regimental Number 4831 in the Hertfordshire Regiment. He went to France on Christmas Day 1916 and was transferred to the Essex Regiment as Regimental Number 202810. ‘Soldiers died’ database states that he was in the 10th Battalion of the Essex Regiment, but this Battalion was in the Ypres Salient many miles north of where he is buried. It is more likely that he was in the 11th Battalion which was in the 18th Brigade, 6th Division, I Corps in the 1st Army. He was killed in action.
One source states that he was in the 4th (Reserve) Battalion of the Essex Regiment but this is not a unit that can be identified in ‘British Regiments 1914-18’. He does not appear to have been an enthusiastic soldier as at one time he deserted and, much to her annoyance, his wife's allotment was stopped.
On the day of his death, the 11th Battalion of the Essex Regiment was fighting in the vicinity of Lens among the slag heaps and ruined mining works. He was killed that night by an "aerial dart".
He is buried in Plot 1, Row R, Grave 45 in the Philosophe British Cemetery at Mazingarbe in France. Mazingarbe is between Bethune and Lens in the Pas de Calais.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
