2nd Lieutenant Frank Pockett McCormick

• Age: 28
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: Northumberland Fusiliers
• Died on Friday 9th August 1918
• Commemorated at: Thiennes Bc
  Panel Ref: F.10

Frank Pockett McCormick was born in Liverpool in 1891 the son of John McCormick and his wife Ellen (nee Pockett). His parents married at St Michael in the Hamlet Church on 26th August 1883.   

The 1891 Census finds the family living at Kinmel Street, Liverpool. Frank is a new born baby living with his parents and elder sister Mabel N. His father is a 36 year old railway clerk, born in Liverpool, whilst his mother is 34 years of age and born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. His sister Mabel N. is 2 years of age and the family have a visitor registered as Fanny Pockett aged 22 and from Gloucestershire.  

The 1901 Census shows the family are living at 6 Kinmel Street, Toxteth Park Liverpool. Frank is 10 years of age and lives with his parents and two sisters. His father is a 45 year old railway servant whilst his mother is 43 years of age. His elder sister Mabel N. is 12 years of age and his younger sister Jessie F. is 9.   

The 1911 Census shows him as a 21 year old shipping clerk living with his parents and his sister Jessie at 6 Kinmel Street, Liverpool. His father, John, is recorded as a 57 year old railway porter, whilst his mother is 54 years of age. His younger sister Jessie Fanny is 20 years of age and a dressmaker. His parents have been married for 27 years and have had three children all of whom have survived.     

Frank enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 03rd September 1914 joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 15535. 

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. He arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

On 22nd September 1915, then aged 25, he married Edith Tatham, aged 24, at St Michael's in the Hamlet Church, Liverpool. Frank gave his residence at the time as Larkhill Camp. (His best man was also a Pal; Leonard Wilson Blackstone who was a Serjeant in the 19th Battalion and was killed in action on 15th November, 1917. Leonard has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial). 

Frank was wounded at Guillemont on 30th July 1916;

17^th Battalion Diary 30^th July 1916

The Bn was in support to 19 & 20 Bn K.L.R. 2 Coys. behind 19th & 2 Coys. behind 20^th. Very thick mist. The attack was pushed home to the objective in places but in the main was held up by machine gun fire from hidden machine guns.

Fighting continued all day swaying backwards and forwards until by 6pm about 300 yards in depth had been gained & consolidated all along our front.

Casualties in the 17^th Battalion were 15 Officers and 281 Other Ranks

Further details are reported in more detailed by Everard Wyrall in his book The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 Volume II 1916-1917

The 17^th King’s had advanced (two companies each behind the 19th and 20th Battalions)  in small columns. They too suffered heavily from machine-gun fire and were quickly absorbed into the waves that preceded them. They also shared the gains and losses of that terrible day.

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30^th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55^th Division during the early hours of the 31^st July. 

The events of 30^th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89^th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.      

Upon his recuperation Frank applied for a commission in early 1917, he went through his cadet training at Hertford College, Oxford, and was gazetted to the 18th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers on November 23rd that year. He was serving as Lieutenant and attached to the 9th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers when he was wounded.

Frank died of his wounds on 09th August 1918 and he now rests at Thiennes British Cemetery where his headstone bears the poignant epitaph: 

"MY CHUM"

The German offensive of April 1918 pushed the front line back almost as far as St. Venant in this sector and this was one of the cemeteries made for Commonwealth burials arising from the fighting in the area. Thiennes British Cemetery was started by the 5th Division in May and used by the 59th and 61st Divisions before being closed in August 1918. There are now 114 First World War burials in the cemetery. The cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw.

His next of kin is shown as Edith McCormick of 7, St. Michael's Road, Aigburth, Liverpool. It is highly probable that it was Edith who placed the epitaph on Frank's headstone. 

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 15th August 1918: 

DIED OF WOUNDS

McCORMICK - August 9, Second Lieutenant F. P. McCORMICK, the dearly loved husband of Edith McCormick, 7 St. Michael's Road, Aigburth. (Sadly missed by all.)

Soldiers Effects to widow Edith, Pension record but has no award.

Frank is commemorated on the following Memorials:

St Michael's Church, St Michaels Church Rd, St Michael In The Hamlet, Liverpool

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 23. 

The extract below was taken from Liverpool's Scroll of Fame and gives further details of Frank's life and his career in the Army.

Homage has been paid by great commanders and by writers who have carefully studied the psychology of the New Armies to the magnificent spirit and soldierly capacity of the volunteers from the office. Born and reared in an atmosphere of peace, unaccustomed to discipline and to hardship, inured not at all to the nerve-wracking horror of death and mutilation, our civilian volunteers revealed in the hour of supreme national crisis the abiding qualities of British blood, the spirit and the fire of generations of fighting ancestors.

To this type of soldier belonged Frank Pockett McCormick, of 7, St. Michael's Road, Aigburth, who less than a month after war broke out left his work in a Liverpool shipping office to enlist at the call of his country, and after an honourable service in the army at the age of twenty eight died of wounds received on August 9th in the last year of the conflict. 

He was the only son of Mr John and Mrs. Ellen McCormick, of Princes Park, Liverpool, and was educated at St Silas' School and at the Liverpool School of Commerce, and at the outbreak of war was employed with Messrs: Elder, Dempster & Co, as a clerk in their stores department at Colonial House, Water Street, Liverpool. When the bugle sounded, like so many of his comrades in the shipping offices, he joined the "Pals" enlisting in the 1st Battalion on 3rd September, 1914. With that unit, which was so shortly to perform brilliant deeds on the battlefields of Europe, he underwent his course of training at various centres in England until November the following year, when he crossed over to France. The regiment was quickly in the front line positions, and took part in all those unspectacular but arduous operations which preceded the greater events of 1916 and onwards. He was still with the "Pals" when the first Battle of Somme opened in July, 1916, the first offensive engagement which was undertaken by the British Army on a stupendous scale.

It was during those operations,--in the storming of Guillemont--that Lieuenant McCormick was wounded in the face. He was sent for treatment in hospital to England, but on his discharge, and having by this time won his stripes, he applied for a commission in early 1917, went through his cadet training at Hertford College, Oxford, and was gazetted to the 18th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers on November 23rd that year.

While with the forces both in the training camp and at the front Lieut. McCormick was very popular, and his musical abilities added much to the cheerfulness of his comrades. He was a clever pianist, and acted as accompanist for "The Blighties Pierrot Troupe,"  whose concerts enlivened the camp. This company later became celebrated as "The King's Jesters." But he was as capable in soldierly skill. A crack shot, while in training at Grantham and Salisbury he won the competition for shooting, and was awarded a silver cigarette case besides gaining the Cross Guns Badge. 

During the war, on September 15th, 1915, Liuet. McCormick had been married to Miss. Edith Tatham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Tatham of Aigburth, but his new duty at the front was to sever that happy bond on earth at least. In January, 1918, he was again in the fighting line, attached to the 9th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers, and had to pass through the severest trial the British Army endured throughout the war-- in the period of the great German advance. He had some narrow escapes--on one occasion his revolver was shattered in his hand by a piece of shell-- and received his fatal wound as stated on August 9th.

The occasion was described by his Commanding Officer Lieut. Col W. A. Vignoles, as follows: 

"The company was ordered to place a bridge across a stream -- (Lieut. McCormick's work had been with the engineering section)--between our own and the enemy's line, and to establish a bridgehead on the far side. The Company succeeded in getting across, but were met on the other side by very heavy fire." 

In this way Lieut. McCormick was hit, and in spite of medical aid died shortly after at the regimental aid-post." 
 
"Though McCormick had not been very long with the Battalion" testified his Commanding Officer, "we had all learned to appreciate his worth, and the Battalion loses in him a very gallant and capable officer. He was one of the best subalterns in the Battalion. He died doing his duty, like the gallant gentleman he was, setting an example of coolness and bravery to all around him under very trying circumstances.

He was buried at Tannay. His friends lost a good comrade and the nation a good soldier, and a man whose career in the arts of peace promised well.   

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