BORN: 20 May 1897 Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales.
UNIT: 2/8th Battalion, City of London (Post Office Rifles).
DIED: Killed in Action, 30 Oct 1917, Poelcappelle near Passchendaele, Belgium. Aged 20.
BURIED: No known grave. Commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial. Part XXIII. Panel 150-151.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Lower House, Bishton.
Early Life
Frank was born as John Francis Wollery WILLIAMS on 20 May 1897 in Newport, Monmouthshire. , He was the only child of Fanny Jane WILLIAMS, an unmarried tailor’s daughter.
By 1901, aged 3, he lived in Cardiff, Glamorgan with his grandparents, Alfred Richard & Elizabeth Anne WILLIAMS. His mother Fanny, aged 35, was not with them. She lived and worked as a housekeeper in Caerau Road, Newport.
Frank and his grandparents moved to Bishton, Monmouthshire where he may have attended Bishton Council school. He definitely attended St. Woolos Boys School, Newport in 1909. Frank lived at Lower House, Bishton and his grandfather Alfred was recorded as his guardian.
Alfred died in 1909 and was buried in Bishton churchyard. So in the 1911 census, 13-year-old Frank lived in Bishton with his widowed grandmother and his unmarried uncle Edwin and aunt Amy. Meanwhile his mother, Fanny, lived in Chepstow Road, Newport. She was still single, aged 45, and was the companion of one Mary Ann GOULD, a widow of private means.
After school, aged 14, Frank started work as a railway worker. He became a Railway Clerk and then a Post Office Clerk.
Frank and WW1
Frank answered the call and enlisted in the British Army in Newport within a month of 01 May 1916. He would have been 18 or 19 years old. Frank joined the 2/8th Battalion, City of London Regiment (Post Office Rifles). He was Rifleman (Private) 6085, later renumbered to 373091.
Post Office Rifles
The second Post Office Rifles Battalion was formed in Sep 1914 to accommodate the volume of new recruits like Frank. This 2nd/8th Battalion was home-based and supplied reinforcements to the 1st Battalion overseas. However, after six months based in Wiltshire, the 2nd / 8th also moved to France on 27 Jan 1917. Frank was with them.
They were soon part of the advance pursuing the Germans as they retreated to the Hindenburg Line. The Germans left behind booby trapped trenches. British soldiers were treated to poisoned water, explosives in stoves, mined duckboard walkways, and German helmets –tempting souvenirs – hanging along walls, but explosively wired.
Frank soon saw plenty of action. The 2/8 PO Rifles fought at the Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917, Menin Ridge and later at Polygon Wood. Frank was killed in the Second Battle of Passchendaele (26 Oct – 10 Nov 1917) aka Third Battle of Ypres. His final days are described below, including the cruel masterplan that cost him his life:
Death and Burial
Passchendaele Mud
The summer and autumn of 1917 saw five times more rain than in the previous two years. The weather in August was so bad that battle was temporarily halted. The rainfall added to a high natural water-table and the constant bombardment had turned the ground into a black, treacherous, quagmire. Men died because they slipped off the wooden duckboards and literally drowned in the mud. It was not unknown for a soldier to be shot by a comrade rather than suffer slow suffocation by the swampy ground.
Wurst Farm Ridge
Better weather in late August/early September encouraged General Haig to press forward with his attacks on German defenses. As part of this assault, Frank and his comrades were charged with capturing three enemy strongholds at Wurst Farm. They practiced on replicas of the battlefield and buildings marked out on their parade ground. So by the attack on 20 Sep 1917 they were well drilled in their mission and tactics. The battle was a success but a costly one. Frank was lucky to survive as the Rifles lost nearly half their men that day.14 Many of his comrades were decorated for gallantry, including a Victoria Cross awarded to Sgt. Knight.
Popperinge to Poelcappelle & Passchendaele
After Wurst Farm, Frank and his comrades retired behind the front line at Landrethun. They then spent 3 days in Popperinge and then moved to a series of camps around Ypres. On 29 Oct 1917 they moved to Kempton Park Camp, ready to go back to the front line and now to Passchendaele itself.
On the night of 29/30 Oct, Frank and his comrades moved forwards from their camp to the Battalion HQ, Southeast of Poelcappelle. Each man wore light battle order including a leather jerkin. They carried a haversack, an entrenching tool, one green ground flare, a water bottle, and a mess tin. Frank would have been armed with his rifle and 50 rounds of ammunition, a bayonet, and one bomb (grenade). The haversacks were painted with a different coloured cross for each Company.
Four Strongholds
Their objectives were four German strongholds to their east: Cameron House, Papa Farm, Hinton Farm, and Moray House. This time, their attack was a disaster.
British artillery and machine gun barrages started at 05:45 but were ineffective and German soldiers were constantly visible. Intelligence about drier patches of ground was false. The mud was ‘thick and sticky’ and ‘men were up to their knees, thighs or waist in every step taken’. Many resorted to crawling across the open ground on all fours and were exhausted before they had moved 100 yards. Any uncovered rifles were useless after the first 50 yards. Those that were kept wrapped in case the objectives were reached could not therefore be fired. Frank and his comrades were under constant assault from German machine guns and sniper fire. One pinned down soldier, Fred Shewry, screamed “I can’t stand this any longer” and stood up to make for a captured pillbox. He was shot by a sniper’s bullet within seconds.
Savages not Stamp Lickers – and a bitter taste.
The Post Office Rifles did not achieve their objectives that day. By the time they were relieved they had advanced only a matter of yards and over 120 men had been killed. Sadly, Frank was one of them. He was 20 years old and was at the front for less than a year.
The losses and failure left the survivors deeply dispirited, so they were surprised by their commander’s subsequent high praise:
“I thought… you were a lot of stamp lickers, but the way you fought…, you went over like a lot of bloody savages”.
The reason for their General’s upbeat mood left them with a bitter taste in their mouths. The PO Rifles were never intended to achieve their objectives. They were, in fact, a diversion to draw German focus away from Canadian advances on Passchendaele village. Since the Canadians had taken the village (finally on 10 Nov), the General believed his plan had worked.
Futility
The British Army suffered 275,000 casualties at Passchendaele. In 1918, they left the area in the face of the impending German offensive. Passchendaele is remembered as an icon of the futility and horror of the fighting and the casual manner with which ‘donkeys’ led ‘lions’ to their death. Historians today argue that it was the right battle, fought for the right reasons but in the wrong way.
His Burial
Sadly Frank’s body was never found. Some estimate that he was one of 42,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were never recovered. Bodies are still being discovered today and given full military burials. Frank is commemorated at Tyne Cot memorial to the lost on Panel 150-151.
He is also commemorated in Bishton Village Hall and listed on war memorials in St. Mark’s Church, Newport and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Newport. His death was announced in the local newspaper.
Medals and Pension
His mother Fanny was his sole legatee, and she received a payment of £4 14s 8d on 04 Oct 1918 and his War Gratuity payment of £6 on 27 Nov 1919.
Frank was awarded the British and Victory campaign medals. He did not serve overseas until 1917 and so was not entitled to the 1914- or 1915-Star medals.
What happened to his family?
Parents
His mother Fanny Jane WILLIAMS never married. She died in 1927, aged 63, and was buried in Bishton churchyard on 19 Jun 1927. Frank had no siblings.
View Other Magor Heroes
Contact Me
Contact me if you want more detail about the sources used or any help finding your ancestors’ stories, military or otherwise.
Links
The Postal Museum’s website
Duncan Barrett’s book ‘Men of Letters’ about the PO Rifles can be found here.
Read more about the the current view of Passchendaele here.
Shaun McGuire’s Newport War Dead
