George Hattersley & Sons Ltd roll of honour
Lance Corporal. 1/7th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, Service number 265848.
Early life:
Frank was born on 28th August 1883 in Keighley and his parents were James Bottomley and Susannah Bottomley née Wood, who were married at Keighley Parish Church in 1867.
James was an iron moulder and they were living on West Lane in Keighley at the time of Fank’s birth. Frank was baptised at Keighley Parish Church on 7th October.
In the 1891 census Frank was aged seven and living at number 24, Aireworth Street with his father James, an iron moulder aged 46 and mother Susannah aged 44. He had seven siblings, who were
William aged 22 an iron moulder’s pattern maker; Alfred aged 21, a grocer’s assistant, Ellis aged 19, a tailor; Emma aged 17, a stocking knitter. The youngest were Charley aged 9 Arthur J. aged 4 and Ada S. aged just 1.
Frank ‘s youngest sister Ada Susannah Bottomley died aged three in 1893 and was buried at Utley Cemetery.
By the time of the 1901 census the family had moved to 45, Holker Street (off North Street) and all of the older children had left home. Father James was aged 56 and employed as a verger and sexton, Susannah was 54 and at home, Charles was now 19 and a grocer at a Cooperative store, Frank was 17 and an iron moulder and Arthur was 14 and a telegraph messenger.
Frank’s father James died at the age of 62 in 1907 and was buried at Utley Cemetery, in the same grave as his youngest daughter Ada Susannah.
Frank married May Moody at St Mary’s Church in Eastwood on 1st June 1909. Frank was aged 26 and a moulder of Long Lee Terrace and May was 26 and a spinster of Thorncroft.
Their first daughter was Irene. She was born on 16th December 1909 and baptised on 30th January 1910 at St. Peter’s Church on South Street in Keighley. At that time they were living at 6, Regent Place.
In the 1911 census Frank was aged 27 and living with his wife May aged 28 at 6, Regent Place in Keighley with their daughter Irene who was aged just one. They also had a boarder, John Edward Groom aged 45 staying with them, probably to supplement their household income. Frank was still working as an iron moulder, for George Hattersley & Sons, Ltd.
Their second daughter Frances Mary was born on 12th June 1915 with her birth being registered in Keighley in the second quarter of the year.
War service:
There are no Army service records for Frank and we have piece together some of what he would have experienced. He enlisted at Leeds early in the war, (reported as October 1914 in the newspaper). After his training he went out to France with the 1/7th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, disembarking with them in Boulogne on 15th April 1915, after an ‘uneventful passage’ from Folkestone.
Frank more than likely served with them for the whole of his time abroad. The Battalion was part of the 49th Division and was involved in the whole of the Battle of Passchendaele.
In particular they were fighting in the Battle of Poelcapelle on 9 October 1917, which was one of a series of battles leading up to the Battle of Passchendaele and this is the day Frank went missing.
We have transcribed a section of the battalion war diary which includes a narrative from their commanding officer.
WO-95/2795/1. War diary, 1/7th West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own.)
October 1917:
LONGUENESS 1 Battalion marched to billets in TERDEGHEM Area.
TERDEGHEM 2 Resting – Interior economy
do 3 Battalion marched to SHRINE Camp WATOO No 2 Area
SHRINE CAMP 4 Training
WATOU 5 do
do 6 Mud to VLAMERTINGHE No 2 Area by bus.
VLAMERTINGHE 7 2 Officers + 8.0R per Cry. proceeded to the line on reconnaissance – Battalion Completed equipment etc.
do 8 7.30 am Battalion marched to BRYRE, N.MY PRES (map HAZEBROUCK 5A) where it rested.
BRICKE 8 5 pm Battalion assembled & proceeded by No. 6 Track to Assembly, Positive for attack
CALGARY GRANGE 9 3 am Battalion formed ups in Assembly Positions NE. J CALGARYGRANGE
do. 5.20 am Attack commenced – vide narrative attached.
do 10 10.0 pm Relief of Battalion by the 47th Battalion. 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Commenced.
do 11 3.0 am Relief Complete
NIELTJE 6 am Battalion bivouacked in old British Front line S. of WIELTJE
11.30am Battalion moved into hutments at VLAMERTINGHE No. 2 Area
VLAMERTINGHE 12 2.45 pm Battalion embussed & moved to WINNEZEELE No 3 Area & encamped in C. Camp, near OUDEZEELE.
Narrative of Recent Operations.
The battalion assembled at LA BRIQUE at 9 am, on Oct. 8th. and at 5 pm started to move up to 6. track to the assembly position. The night was very dark & rain commenced to fall shortly before 5 pm. & continued during the night, making the march up to CALGARY RANGE very difficult, many parts of the track being almost impossible to follow. Shortly after leaving the ST. JULIEN ROAD if shortly after was found that all the trench grids had been removed for a considerable distance.
The head of the battalion reached CALGARY GRANGE about midnight & the whole Battalion was in position by 3 am, on Oct. 9th; the men were all very tired. There was a certain amount of shelling on the way up but no casualties occurred until the Battalion reached the assembly position.
The barrage opened at 5:20 am; the troops were all ready & advanced at once, owing however the broken ground, which was very wet & soft, & to the water in the STROOMBEEK, the troops did not keep up to the barrage at first, but I think that they got up to it again before reaching the first objective.
The companies at first kept rather too much to the right in the direction of PETER PAN but they afterward changed direction and passed YETTA HOUSES at about the proper distance. Battalion H.Q. moved forward behind the companies * took up a position in shell holes near CALGARY GRANGE.
The news was received from companies until Lieutenant. BALDWIN, M.C, O.C. Left Coy, for second objective, came back wounded about 7 am. and said that his company pulling was held y by Machine Gun fire and snipers from the left and soon as they moved forward through the 1st objective Companies; he told me that he had given orders that 2 platoons should move along to deal with this M.G. but they apparently failed to silence this gun. As I got no reports whatever from the companies I went up to the front line myself near YETTA HOUSES & found that 3 companies were consolidating there with their lift about 100 yards from YETTA HOUSES. The men were too crowded and I gave orders that the men of one company were to be collected & taken to some trenches further in rear.
The other company (the right coy: for the 1st objective) was nearer PETER PAN where it was in touch with the 1/5th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. Two officers were left on duty with my right company, but in the other three companies all the officers + the greater part of the senior N.C.O’s had become casualties, this made it difficult to obtain really reliable information.
Enemy Machine guns and snipers in carefully concealed positions were very active; they continued to fire throughout the barrage & were able to prevent our advance to the second objective owing to the accuracy of their fire & the difficulty of locating their exact positions. A number of the enemy were killed by our rifle + Lewis gun fire and an enemy machine gun firing from the parapet on a trench in the night, & enfilading troops advancing on the left, was rushed by one man single handed, whereupon the team ran away; as the man found that he could not work the gun he disabled it.
During this morning of October 9th, Captain MANDER with 2 companies of the 1/4th West Riding Regt, reported to me at 2.0 pm. I sent one of these companies to YETTA HOUSES to fill the gap between the left of my line & the right of the 1/8th West Yorkshire Regiment.
Small counter attacks were attempted by the enemy about 2 pm & 6 pm but these came to nothing. At 10.30 pm on Oct. 9th. I received instructions that a company of the 1/6th Battalion West Riding Regiment would mop up the area between my line and the most advanced posts.
Lieutenant Colonel BATEMAN of the 1/6th. West Riding Regiment made his H.Q. at CALGARY GRANGE.
(N.B. During the morning of October 9th I moved my battalion H.Q., back to CALGARY GRANGE as the shell fire position was too indefinite for runners to find) Early in the morning of Oct. 10th, the O.C. the 1/6th West Riding Regiment mopping-up company: reported that his company had covered all the ground up to the post held by my right coy, where Lieutenant MOORE informed him that he was in the most advanced position of the Battalion; he therefore considered that he had carried out his instructions.
During the night of the 9th/10th I met first my Intelligence Officer, and afterwards my Regimental Sergeant Major to ascertain the position in the front line, both were wounded, however, & I had no me else to send at the time. At 6am on Oct 10th, I sent my Signalling Officer up to the front line; he reported that all was quiet & in order.
The first companies of the relieving Battalion of the New Zealand Rifles came up about 9 pm. & relief was complete about midnight.
Enemy shelling was heavy throughout the day of Oct 10th + during the relief; & the New Zealand Rifles suffered a good many casualties.
C. H. Tetley(?) Lieutenant Colonel.
13/10/17 Commanding 1/7th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. (T.F.)
Frank went missing on 9th October and almost a year later he was declared ‘death presumed on or since’ 9th October. These facts were mentioned in the Keighley News in 1917 and 1918.
His wife May was notified of him being wounded and missing on 22nd November, which seems a long time but with the confusion of so many men going missing at that time, they would need to perform exhaustive checks before informing their next of kin.
The Keighley News. Saturday November 17, 1917, page 3:
The following names are included in the official casualty lists issued during the past week. All are men from Keighley and district. Private E. Johnson 242616 and Private H. Wilson 268771 (West Riding Regiment); Private W. Manning 6646 (Coldstream Guards), Private H. Smith 105776 (R.A.M.C.), Lance- Corporal F. Bottomley 255848 (West Yorkshire Regiment) and Gunner W. A. Major 45444 (Royal Field Artillery).
The Keighley News. Saturday October 19, 1918, page 10:
Lance Corporal Frank Bottomley, West Yorkshire Regiment, of 166, Long Lee Terrace, Keighley, missing since October 9, 1917, now reported killed. He had been in France about three years, and before his enlistment in October, 1914, was employed as a moulder by Messrs. George Hattersley & cons, Keighley. He leaves a widow and two daughters.
Frank’s body, along with countless others was never found. He’d just disappeared into the mud of the battlefield in that terrible time and the name of Passchendaele is consigned to the history books as a terrible struggle in a virtual sea of mud. His name is inscribed on the West Yorkshire Regiment Panels (42 to 49) of the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium, as a memorial to the missing. This memorial contains 34,922 names.
International Committee of the Red Cross:
A search of the available prisoner of war record cards shows no record of Frank Bottomley. This suggests that no enquiry was made by his family, of his whereabouts at the time.
Remembrance:
Frank is named on the Tyne Cot Memorial and locally he was named on the George Hattersley & Sons Ltd., Worker’s Roll of Honour (lost.) He is also named in the Borough of Keighley Great War Roll of Honour but his name was not actually added until 1934, when twenty extra names were added to the final pages.
Post war:
After the war Frank was posthumously awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.
May was Frank’s next of kin and she would have received any personal effects. She would have been sent his medals sometime in 1920 or 1921, plus a memorial scroll and Bronze war memorial plaque inscribed with his name. She would also have received his persona effects.
As his widow and sole legatee in his will, on 4th December 1918 she received the sum of £10 8s. 1d from his Army account, probably his outstanding pay. Later she was sent a payment of £24 as a war gratuity.
May applied for a dependant’s pension and on 2nd October 1918 she began receiving payments of 25 shillings and 7 pence per week, for herself and their two daughter Irene and Frances. The girls payments would have continued until their 16th birthdays which were 16th February 1925 for Irene and 12th June 1931 for Frances.
The full amount appears to have been increased on 7th January 1919, to 44 shillings and 2 pence per week and this is broken down to 26 shillings and 8 pence widow’s pension for May, and a further 17 shillings and 6 pence children’s allowance for both girls.
In the 1921 Census, May was 39 and a widow, living at 12, Cheyne Gardens in Chelsea with the two girls aged eleven and six. It appears she went there for work as a general domestic servant for an architect. May died at the age of 81 and is buried at Nettleham Cemetery, West Lindsey District, Lincolnshire, close to where she was born.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
1911 England Census.
WO-95/2795/1. WW1 War Diaries. The National Archives.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
1921 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
UK and Ireland, Find a Grave® Index, 1300s-Current.
