1885 - 1916
CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916
Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916
Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916
Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918
Sgt 15006 Frank Moses
- Age: 27
- From: Manchester
- Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
- K.I.A Monday 10th July 1916
- Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.
Frank Moses was born in Old Trafford, Manchester in the March quarter of 1889, the son of George Ellis Moses and his wife Catherine Ellen (née Hughes) who married on 28th Jan 1884 at Highfield Congregational Church, Rock Ferry. His mother was born in Oxton, Wirral, the daughter of a publican, who ran the Queen’s Arms Hotel in Oxton. His father was a widower, born in Beaumaris, Anglesey, in 1856. His first wife Mary Ann Jane (nee Moses but different family) died in 1880, they married on 27th November 1877 in St Martin, Jersey.
Marriage certificate:-
George Ellis Moses, aged 21, bachelor, occupation Merchant, living in St Martin, born in Beaumaris, Wales. (Father George Edwin Moses - Householder)
Mary Ann Jane Moses, aged 26, spinster, no occupation, born and living in St Martin. (Father Joseph Thomas Moses - Merchant)
The family is not found on the census until 1901, but the 1881 census shows George Ellis Moses, age 24, widower, occupation clerk drysalter, living with his parents George E. and Euphemia Moses in Tranmere.
[Drysalters were dealers in a range of chemical products, including glue, varnish, dye and colourings. They might supply salt or chemicals for preserving]
In 1888 George Ellis Moses, age 32, is found on the membership list of Strangeways Grand Lodge, address 86 Shrewsbury Street, Old Trafford, occupation drysalter. His father is not found on any census records after this date, nor has any death record been found.
Newspapers reveal his business ventures started to fail by 1890.
Huddersfield Advertiser 24th May 1890
BANKRUPTCY ACT 1883
Receiving Orders
George Ellis Moses, Kilvert's Buildings, Withy Grove and Moss Side, Manchester, drysalter.
Manchester Evening News 4th June 1890
First meeting of the creditors of George Ellis Moses, drysalter, of 9 Kilvert's Buildings, Withy Grove and 6 Stockton Street, Moss Side, was held this afternoon at the offices of the Official Receiver, Bridge Street, the Official Receiver, Mr C. J. Dibb, presiding. Proofs have been lodged amounting to £497 and assets so far have realised £85. The debtor did not attend the meeting. An order for the summary administration of his affairs has been made, and he has been adjudged bankrupt. The creditors did not appoint an independent trustee, and the Official Receiver will continue to act in that capacity.
The Manchester Courier 23rd Sept 1891 explains why he did not attend the creditors meeting, he had absconded.
RETURN OF A BANKRUPT FROM NEW ZEALAND
He left England on April 19, 1890 and sailed to the Cape, but finding there was no opening at Cape Town he went on in the same boat to New Zealand where he held various situations from June 1890 to July 11th 1891 when he started for home. When he left Manchester, he took about £50, the passage money to New Zealand was £40 and he bought some clothes and kept himself out of the balance. The ship he sailed in was the "Coptic" and he bought his ticket at Swan and Leaches, Princess Street. He booked as George Patterson, he did not know why he adopted the name except that he once new a person of that name. The fact was he tried to conceal his departure from the country, though he used his own name when he arrived in New Zealand, and he admitted having contracted debts with the knowledge of his insolvency. He had kept no record of his trade expenses, or household and personal withdrawals. The examination was adjourned until November 3rd.
A passenger record for Mr G. E. Moses on the SS Loandra in April 1894 to Grand Canary is the last time his father is documented (CWGC says Frank was the son of the late George Ellis).
Frank enlisted at St George's Hall on 31st August 1914 joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment. He must have been one of the very first to enlist as his service number is 15006 and the 17th Battalion numbers commenced at 15000. He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. He arrived in France on 7th November 1915.
Frank, by now a Serjeant was involved in the capture of Montauban on 1st July 1916. The Pals were then charged with assisting with the capture of Trones Wood.
The murderous fighting that went on inside Trones Wood rendered it impossible to put specific dates on some of the casualties which is why many of the 17th Battalion losses have been bracketed as killed in action between 10th – 12th July 1916. The conditions are best described in the following passage from Everard Wyrall’s book The History of The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) Volume II.
The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary. The place was a Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination, the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible.
Frank was killed in action, aged 27, his body was either lost or his grave was subsequently destroyed as his name is listed on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.
The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.
On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”
A report of Frank's death was included in the Wallasey News:
Council Clerk Killed
On Wednesday the War Office conveyed to Miss Gertie Moses, Perch Rock Hotel, Grosvenor Road, New Brighton, the sad intelligence that her brother, Sergeant F. Moses, of the 17th Liverpool Regiment, had been killed in action. An expression of the sympathy of the King and Queen and the Army Council was also enclosed. The deceased soldier had been in the service of the Wallasey Corporation between seven and eight years, having been engaged as a drawing clerk in the Borough Engineer and Surveyor’s Department and his loss will be deeply regretted by all his late colleagues. At Thursday’s meeting of the Town Council a vote of condolence with the relatives was sympathetically passed.
The Liverpool Echo on 8th August 1916 also reported:
“July 10 or 12, Sergeant Frank Moses, Pals, eldest son of the late Mrs. C. A. Moses, beloved brother of Effie and Marie Moses, and nephew of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Hughes, New Brighton.”
We currently have no further information on Frank Moses, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.
Killed On This Day.
(108 Years this day)Tuesday 30th April 1918.
L/Cpl 29203 Valentine Alexander
26 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 27948 Joseph Atherton
26 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 51896 Richard Edward Banks
34 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 46630 Watson Bell
38 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Lieut Roland Henry Brewerton
27 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 51708 Charles Norman Dod
21 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
L/Cpl 94246 Frank Emison
24 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 23056 John William Jones
27 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 49572 John Henry Leadbeater (MM)
27 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Sgt 22462 James Lowe (MID)
25 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 51712 Edgar Domenico Murray
21 years old
(108 Years this day)
Tuesday 30th April 1918.
Pte 269899 Harry Pitts
21 years old
A total of 14 Pals were killed on this day. View All