Name
Frank H Bunce
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/06/1916
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Serjeant
13794
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Watford, Bushey Memorial, Clay Hill, St James’ Church Memorial, Bushey, St Paul's Church Memorial, Bushey, Wesleyan (Bushey & Oxhey Methodist) Memorial Church, Oxhey
Pre War
Son of Elizabeth (nee Leslie) and the Joseph Bunce. They were married 6 June 1876 at St Mary’s, Beaconsfield, Bucks.
Frank was born 1883 in Beaconsfield (not Watford), and baptised 29 November 1883 at St Mary’s, Beaconsfield.
In 1891 Census the family were living in Watford, his father working as a horsekeeper. Frank was aged 7 with three older and two younger siblings.
By 1902 the family had moved to 5 Vale Road, Bushey, but Frank was absent from the household, at 17 he may have been working elsewhere.
He married 1905 in the Watford district; they had four children. He resided in Watford, and worked as a fuelman for the London and North Western Railway at the Watford Locomotive Depot. On the 1911 Census, Frank was recorded as a railway servant aged 28, living in No.2 Wiggs Cottages, Bushey Hall Road, Watford with his wife and three children: Ethel Doris, Francis and Ellie Elizabeth. His brother George was boarding with him.
His father, Joseph, died 1915 in Watford aged 61, and was buried 5 May in Vicarage Road Cemetery, Watford; Elizabeth died 1925 in Watford aged 66, and was buried 11 February, also in Vicarage Road Cemetery.
After Frank’s death in 1916, Mercy married William Baldwin in 1917 in the Watford district. She died 1932 in Watford aged 51 and was buried 21 November in Vicarage Road Cemetery.
Wartime Service
Frank enlisted in Watford with the Bedfordshire Regiment 7th Battalion and served as Sergeant 13794. He served overseas from 26 July 1915.
He was killed on 26 June 1916, when a shell fell on ‘C’ Company, Officers’ Mess in the front line near Carnoy.
He is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Pier & face 2C, on the Bushey Memorial, at St James’ Parish Church and at St Paul’s Bushey and was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914-15 Star medals, his qualifying date being 26 July 1915.
Additional Information
There are articles about Frank in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 14 November 1914, 8 July 1916 (including a Death announcement) and 7 April 1917. Has a entry in the National Roll of the Great War. Unfortunately, Frank’s Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Paul Johnson, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
