Pte 34370 Frank Ledward Bebbington

• Age: 26
• From: Nantwich, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 6th November 1916
• Commemorated at: Bienvillers Mill Cem
  Panel Ref: V.D.1

Frank Ledward Bebbington was born in 1890 in Nantwich where he resided at the family home. He was baptised on the 18^th May, 1890 at Nantwich, Cheshire. He was the son of James Bebbington and his wife Frances (nee Chesters) who married in Salford district in 1877.

At the time of the 1891 Census, his parents and their three children are living with his widowed grandmother Hannah Bebbington, 71, a butcher, born in Nantwich, at 17 Church Yard Side. His father works as a butcher’s assistant. Maggie, 12, and Walter, 9, are at school, and Frank is one year old. They have a 20-year old lodger, Edith Kitchen, a school assistant mistress.

In 1901 the family is still at 17 Church Yard Side, where his parents manage the Conservative Club. Maggie, 22, is a school teacher, and 19-year old Walter is a butcher. Frank is 11..

The 1911 Census shows the family are still living at 17 Church Yard Side Nantwich. His father, James, is aged 59, born in Nantwich in 1852 and is the manager of a Conservative Club, his mother, Frances, is aged 53, born in Acton, Cheshire, in 1858 and is assisting in the business. Thye have been married for 33 years and have had three children, all of whom were born in Nantwich. Maggie now aged 32 born 1879, is a teacher, Walter Kennerley aged 29, born 1882 is a butcher have both left the household. Maggie and Walter (a licensed victualler running the Wickstead Arms) are both married and living in Nantwich. Frank Ledward aged 21, born 1890 is a Grocers Assistant. Also living at the address is sister-in –law Annie Chesters aged 42, born 1869 and her occupation is listed as a hospital trained nurse and she was born in Nantwich.

Frank enlisted in Crewe and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 34370 when he was killed in action on the 06^th November 1916, aged 26, during the Somme Offensive.

A report in the Nantwich Guardian dated 17^th November 1916 reads:

“Mr and Mrs James Bebbington of Church yard Side, Nantwich, received news on Monday morning that their youngest son, Private Frank Bebbington, The King’s Liverpool Regiment, had been killed in action. Private Bebbington who was 25 years of age, joined the army early this year and went to the front July 1^st. He was a most efficient soldier and came rapidly under notice for his proficiency in musketry. The news of his death was conveyed to Mr and Mrs Bebbington in a letter from the Second Lieutenant of his platoon and also from the Chaplain.

The former wrote that he was killed on Monday the 6^th inst, by a shell while at work in the trench.

“It will be some satisfaction to you” concluded the Lieutenant “to know that he was a good soldier and he died for his country he was buried today in a quiet little cemetery.”  
The Chaplain writing said that Private Bebbington was shot in the head and chest. His comrades were erecting a wooden cross over his grave with his name and rank.

Private Bebbington owing to his excellent shooting, had been selected with several others from the regiment to fill vacancies in the King’s Royal Rifles, and as there were two men for one place private Bebbington and a comrade elected to toss for the position. His comrade won and went to the front but was unfortunately killed soon afterwards. Private Bebbington wrote most cheery letters home. On one occasion he was slightly wounded in the thigh, but such was his pluck and good spirits he was soon back in the fighting line. He was a very popular member of the Nantwich Conservative Working Men’s Club. Before the war he was employed by Messrs: P.H. Chesters, Nantwich. He was formerly a butcher who served his apprenticeship at Kidsgrove.     

Frank now rests at Bienvillers Military Cemetery, France, where his headstone bears the epitaph:

“THY WILL BE DONE”

Bienvillers Military Cemetery was begun in September 1915 by the 37th Division, carried on by other Divisions in the line until March 1917, reopened from March to September 1918, when the village was again near the front line, and completed in 1922-24 when a number of graves, mainly of 1916, were brought in from the battlefields of the Ancre. Its twenty-one plots show a remarkable alternation of original burials in regimental or divisional groups, and groups of concentrated graves. The cemetery now contains 1,605 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 425 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to two casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The 16 Second World War burials all date from the early months of the war, before the German invasion in May 1940 forced the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France.

His father James received Frank’s effects, including a War Gratuity of £3 (showing Frank’s first name as Francis). His mother was awarded a pension of 4 shillings a week.

Frank is also commemorated on the Acton & Nantwich War Memorial.

His father died in 1922,  aged 71.

On the 1939 register his widowed mother Frances, 82, living on private means, is with married daughter Maggie and her family in Wellington Road, Nantwich. Frances appears to have died in 1946 at the age of 88.

We currently have no further information on Frank Ledward Bebbington, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.