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OUR WAR
MEMORIAL
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This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in September/October
2003, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett.
Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.
FRANK HANDSCOMBE
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Frank
Handscombe was truly a Pirton man; his ancestors were of the village and the
family link continues to this day. In 1883 George Handscombe, a 41 year old
labourer, married Martha Dawson, aged 25; both of Pirton. Frank was the eighth
of ten children shown in the 1901 census household. He was baptised at St Mary's
on 4th February 1894.
Thus Frank grew up in the village, attending our school and, whilst great changes have taken place In the village in the intervening 100 years, he would have seen and enjoyed sights that are still for us to see; the school, the village pond and many of the same houses. At the turn of the century, there were just over 200 houses in the village (500 now), but with well over 900 villagers, many houses were crowded with large families. In 1900, Pirton was quite a poor rural village with two thirds of the houses having less than five rooms in total
Frank, his parents and many siblings lived in a thatched cottage in Shillington Road, it was set back from the road, near to the present no, 15 Shillington Road, One of Frank's older sister's, Jane, was the mother of Joe Titmuss and Margaret Ingram, both now living in Royal Oak Lane, Joe and Margaret can well remember visiting their grandmother (Frank's mother) In the cottage later demolished (as was its successor).
Frank enlisted at Mill Hill and joined up in the early stages of the war as Private 22173 in the 8th Bedfordshire Regiment. Sadly, he was to be one of the early Pirton casualties of the Great War, At the beginning of July 1916 the Battle of the Somme stated amid the war-torn territory of what had been lovely countryside. Between the 1st and the 21st July In that year, 30,038 British men died on the western front Frank's regiment, the 6th Bedfordshires, lost over 1400 men As the fighting raged, there were 23 deaths from the regiment on 10th July. On the following day, Tuesday 11th July, Frank was killed in action. He was 22.
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Frank
was the third 'Pirton Man’ since the outbreak of the War in 1914 to be buried in
'a foreign field. He was buried in the Gordon Dump Cemetery,
Ovillers-la-Boisselle, on the Somme, Ref: V. J. 5.
George, Frank's father, aged 77 died on 11th December 1819 and his mother, Martha, on 15th November 1931 Both are buried in St. Mary's churchyard.
**Thanks to Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Joe Titmuss, Jonty Wild, Michael Newbery and Hitchin Library staffs for help with this article.
Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk
We would like to ask for your help, if you have any information, photographs or artefacts:
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For the remaining men yet to be included in a magazine article. |
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For any new information on those already published or following publication. |
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For men who survived the war. |
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If you have any photographs of soldiers from that war who you believe may be related to Pirton, but don't know who they are |
Please get in touch jontywild@pirton.org.uk
Also if anyone would like copy of any Pirton WW1 war grave or memorial please contact Jonty Wild, digital copies for personal use will be provided free of charge to relatives, photographs can be provided for a small charge.
