Lance Corporal 223250 Frank Mitchelmore Aldridge Nelder

• Age: 34
• From: Portsmouth
• Regiment: LABOUR CORPS 17th Btn
• Died on Tuesday 11th February 1919
• Commemorated at: Anfield Cem Liverpool
  Panel Ref: VI.NC. 1867

Frank was the son of George and Jane Nelder, and was born in Portsea in December 1884 at 16 Cumberland Street (very close to the naval dockyard), the third son of George Mitchelmore Nelder and his wife Jane Maria (née Aldridge).  He was baptised when he was about two years old at All Saints Church, Portsea, on 23rd January 1887, his parents’ residence stated as 4 Chichester Road, North End, and his father’s occupation as messman, R.N. 

His father, a Royal Navy steward born in Plympton, Devon, and his mother, from Badingham, Suffolk, married in 1878 in Portsea and had nine children. Frank had older siblings Harry Josias, Ethel Annie, George John, and Gwendoline Mary, and younger siblings Stanley Robert, Irene Ermyntrude (who died in infancy), Gordon Clarke, and Marion Louise. All the children were born in Portsea, and all had Aldridge as a second middle name.

At the time of the 1891 census the family is living at 28 Lion Terrace, Portsea Town, with seven children and a domestic servant. His father is a Royal Navy steward, Frank is 6.

In 1898 at 14 he attended the the Southern Grammar School in Portsmouth for one year, leaving with good reports and proceeding to Portsmouth Grammar School after winning a scholarship. There he gained some academic recognition in science.

The 1901 census finds the family still at 28 Lion Terrace. His father is 57, listed as a messman R.N., his mother is 49. Six children are at home, Frank is 16. None of the children have occupations listed.

His father died in 1905 in Heathfield, Sussex (70 miles east of Portsmouth).  His obituary states “late of naval depot”. 

On leaving school, Frank, worked as a clerk in the Capital and Counties Bank. Frank is found on the 1907 electoral roll at 3, The Pavement, High Street, Haslemere, Surrey, 30 miles northeast of Portsmouth, renting a furnished 3rd floor bedroom and first floor sitting room, for £1 a week.

The 1911 census shows him still in Haslemere, at West View, King’s Road.  Frank is 26, employed as a clerk. His widowed mother Jane, 59, and youngest brother Gordon, live at 13 Montague Road, North End, Portsmouth. Gordon is 21, an assistant elementary school master for the local council.  They have a domestic servant.  His youngest sister Marion (Molly) had died earlier in the year, at the age of 17.

The 1912 and 1913 electoral rolls shows Frank at West View, King’s Road, renting a 3rd floor furnished bedroom with use of ground floor sitting room for 10/- a week.

He moved to Liverpool in around 1913-14 to become a Shipping Clerk to the Liverpool Mersey Dock and Harbour Board.

Frank did not hesitate in signing up when the appeal for recruits came. He enlisted at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool on 31st August 1914, as Private 15395, 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, giving his age as 29 years and 270 days, and his occupation as commercial clerk. He is described as being 5’ 5 and a half inches tall, weighing 119 lbs, with a brown complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair. No next of kin is recorded until his marriage in August 1915. 

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th 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. 

Whilst training at Knowsley, near Liverpool, he was admitted to Whiston Hospital on 25th January 1915 with influenza, and discharged on 01st February 1915.

Frank, then aged 30, married Gertrude Jones, who was aged 36, on 31st March 1915 in the Presbyterian Church, Everton Brow, four weeks before the battalion moved to Belton Camp in Lincolnshire.

He was appointed unpaid Lance Corporal on 06th May 1915.

After final infantry training on Salisbury Plain, Frank shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 07th November 1915.

He was appointed paid Lance Corporal on 30th December 1915.

His record shows qualification: Pioneer. In January 1916 he was attached to 30th Div. Headquarters Salvage Company. He was granted a Good Conduct Badge for two years’ service on 31st August 1916.

On 01st July 1917 Frank was transferred to the 227th Divisional Employment Company of the Labour Corps. The 227th Coy had joined the 30th Division (which included the Liverpool Pals) in May 1917. The Employment Companies ran the divisional institutions such as baths, laundries, canteens, stores, recreation rooms, entertainment and stores as well as clerical duties, sanitation and unloading supply trains. The personnel included, clerks, batmen, runners, cooks, divisional concert parties, laundry and bath units, and also supplied men to the sanitary and salvage sections.

On 26th January 1918 Frank was attached to the Salvage Company. Salvage Companies focused on recovering with a view to recycling items including: empty brass shell and rifle cases, uniforms of casualties where appropriate, the rifles of those killed or wounded, damaged but repairable stretchers, digging tools, corrugated iron sheeting, coils of wire, and all manner of miscellaneous stores that had sufficient value to be repaired economically. Following the war, the grim and solemn tasks of clearing battlefields and constructing cemeteries were also the responsibility of the Labour Corps.

Frank was granted leave on 05th December 1918 until (illegible). He returned to France for a few weeks and before leaving France for the last time, on 02nd February 1919, he, like every other demobbed soldier, signed an Army affidavit that he was not suffering from any disability due to his military service.

He embarked on 06th February 1919 at Boulogne on the U.S.S. Charles, to Southampton, heading for Prees Heath for demobilisation. After serving for four and a half years, we can imagine the sense of relief and joy felt by Frank and his wife in anticipation of his safe homecoming.

The hospital report states that he first became ill on the boat crossing from France: 

On 07th February 1919 he was admitted to University War Hospital, Southampton, with lobar pneumonia at both bases of lungs. His medical report shows “general condition: poorly…?”. On 10th February 1919 he was put on the D.L.(?) List, and “in spite of every care and treatment succumbed from heart failure at 4:30 p.m. on 11th February1919”.

The hospital record shows that relatives were present. . 

His wife had the body of her husband taken to Liverpool and he was laid to rest with full military honours at Anfield Cemetery Liverpool on 15th February 1919 in the non-conformist section, the burial record showing his address as 155 Stanley Park Avenue, Walton.

In December 1914, Liverpool became one of the 21 Auxiliary Patrol Bases and in February 1915, the base of the 10th Cruiser Squadron. During the Second World War, Liverpool was headquarters of Western Approaches Command and a manning depot for officers and men of the Merchant Navy who agreed to serve with the Royal Navy for the duration of the war.

Liverpool (Anfield) Cemetery contains burials of both wars. The majority are in two war graves plots in Section 5, with Screen Walls bearing the names of those buried there. The rest of the war burials are scattered throughout the cemetery.

There are 453 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. Included in this total are 17 casualties who are commemorated by name on the Screen Wall as their graves in Bootle (St Mary) Churchyard and Liverpool (St James) Cemetery could no longer be maintained. Second World War burials number 459 including 2 unidentified British soldiers. There is also another Screen Wall memorial to those whose burials are not marked by headstones. There are also 67 war graves of other nationalities, the majority of them Dutch and Norwegian Merchant seamen, and there are 9 non war service burials here.

Gill Jones, his brother-in-law and executor, at 14 Manton Road, Fairfield, Liverpool, received Frank’s personal effects, including his watch, fountain pen, 2 pk knives, cap badge, belt, handkerchief, pair of gloves, match book covers, polishing brush, razors in case, stationery, wallet, and photos.

Frank’s rank at death was erroneously recorded as Corporal. His record shows correspondence back and forth from his wife and brother in law to regimental records and the pension office through 1919 concerning Frank’s rank at time of death and the amount of pension allocated. Gertrude received a pension of 13/9d a week (the rate for Lance Corporals) from August 1919.  

Frank earned his three medals which Gill Jones signed for.

Soldiers’ Effects, giving his rank as Corporal, shows a War Gratuity of £26 to H.(?) Jones.

Probate of his estate was granted to Gill Jones, commercial clerk, in the amount of £314-2s-10d.

His eldest brother Harry joined the merchant navy at 17 in 1896 as an indentured apprentice and became a Master Mariner in 1903. He joined the Royal Navy Reserve and became a Sub-Lieutenant.  By the time war was declared he was 35 years old and had settled in Victoria, Australia.

No military records have been found for his brother George, who died in the summer of 1918 in Plympton, Devon, aged 36.

Stanley joined the 2nd Bn North Staffordshire Regiment, achieving the rank of Acting Sergeant, and served in India from July 1915, until discharged in 1921.

His brother Gordon was commissioned in the 13th Bn Hampshire Regiment in October 1914, whilst at Cambridge, and married in April 1915. He earned his degree in modern languages, geography, and military studies and three weeks later, in July 1915, left for the Dardanelles.  Soon after landing at Gallipoli, Gordon was killed when the Turks overran the Hampshire Regiment trenches. He was declared missing, and subsequently declared killed in action on 06th August 1915, aged 25. Gordon is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.

His mother died in late 1917, aged 65, having suffered the loss of one son; she was spared the loss of George and Frank.

In January 1920 Gill Jones provided information on Frank’s living relatives:  Gertrude was living at 155 Stanley Park Avenue, Liverpool; Harry, 40, was living in Australia; Ethel, 39, married, was in Southsea, Hampshire; Gwendoline, 36, married, lived in Sussex; Stanley, 30, was with the N. Staffs Reg. in India.

Gertrude never remarried.  In 1939 she is living at 52 Rufford Road, Liverpool, with her younger sister Mary Jane Jones. Gertrude is 61, working as an elementary school teacher.  

Gertrude retired as a headmistress, and when she died in 1946, aged 67, her effects of nearly £4,000 went to Mary Jane Jones.

Frank and Gordon are both commemorated on the following memorials - 

Portsmouth Grammar School WW1 Memorial

City of Portsmouth WW1 Memorial

In addition, Frank is commemorated on -

Portsmouth Southern Grammar School WW1 Memorial

Portsmouth Cathedral Cross

Welsh Presbyterian Church, Clubmoor, Liverpool

Mersey Docks and Harbour Board 

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 63

Gordon is also commemorated in -

Christ’s College Cambridge

Corpus Christi WW1 Window, Portsmouth 

St. Cuthbert’s Church, Portsmouth