Name
Frank Puncher
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/10/1916
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
36429
Princess Charlotte of Wales’ (Royal Berkshire) Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 11 D.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Frank was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Puncher, of 19 West Rd., Sawbridgeworth, Herts., born in June 1887
He was a ‘Coal Carter’ working for Thomas Burton at the mill. and enlisted in Hertford while a resident of Sawbridgeworth.
Wartime Service
Frank was formerly 5857 in the Hertfordshire Regiment and this number means he enlisted sometime after 1st November 1915. He subsequently joined the 6th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment.
This battalion landed at Le Havre in France on 26th July 1915. but obviously Frank joined the later.
It was not to be until the Battle of the Somme in 1916, that the Battalion would go into action. On 26-30th September 1916, the Battalion was involved in the attack on the Schwaben Redoubt and the capture of Regina Trench, both a part of the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, itself a part of the much larger Somme offensive.
His date of death is given as 30th October 1916. However, the Regimental diary for that day records a ‘quiet day’ and ‘slight shelling’. There are no casualties noted. Although a contemporary newspaper report stated that Frank was killed by a shell on 30th October, the implications are that Frank Puncher was actually missing from the earlier actions, and his death was recorded at the later date. He was aged 29.
As well as the Sawbridgeworth Memorial, Frank Puncher is also named on the Thiepval Memorial in France and on the Roll of Honour of the Congregational Church Sawbridgeworth.
The report of his death in the local paper read “Royal Berks Regiment, son of Mr H Puncher, of 19 West Road, Sawbridgeworth, who was killed in action on October 30th, by a shell. He was 29 years of age and in November last year enlisted in the Herts Regiment. Subsequently transferred to the Royal Berks. He went to France in July.”
Additional Information
Frank is pictured in his Herts uniform.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, David Harvey - Leventhorpe School, Douglas Coe
