This man was a candidate for addition to Keighley’s Supplementary Volume under the proposal to add further names in 2024, the centenary of the original roll of honour.
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Supported by the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund, our project submitted 103 names for peer review to add them to the book which is kept at Keighley Library. The unveiling of the book with it’s new names took place on 9th November 2024, 100 years after the unveiling of the original war memorial.
See the list of 103 new names added in 2024 here
Private. 2nd Bn, East Lancashire Regiment. Service Number 31757.
Early life:
Frank was born at Riddlesden on 17th January 1885. His parents were John and Mary Ann Driver née Sargeson (who was actually his second wife.) John was a blacksmith. Frank was baptised at St. Mary’s Church in Riddlesden on 26th July 1885 when the family were living at St. Mary’s Road in Riddlesden. He was actually baptised Joseph Frank Driver although his name Joseph seems to have slipped out of use later.
In the 1891 census he was six years of age and living at Low Banks in Riddlesden with his father John, a 51 year old blacksmith and mother Mary Ann, a 39 year old housewife. Also in the household were Frank’s older sisters who were Emma aged 19, Louisa aged 16, and Fanny aged 12. They were all working as worsted spinners. Frank’s older brother Arthur was nine and a scholar.
By 1901 the Driver family were living at 3, St. Mary’s Road (which is at Low Banks.) John is now a retired blacksmith and eldest daughter Emma has left home. Louisa is 24 and a worsted twister, Fanny is 22 and a worsted reeler. Arthur is 19 and a fitter in an iron tool shop and Frank is 16 and a joiner’s apprentice.
In 1911 the family has moved to no. 2, St. Mary’s Road. John is still a retired blacksmith and the census specifically states that Mary Ann is his second wife and that they’ve been married for 20 years and have had no children, indicating that John’s first wife was the birth mother of all the children, not Mary Ann.
Arthur is 29 and a fitter in an iron and steel tool works, Louise is still a worsted reeler and Frank is now 25 years old and a qualified joiner.
In 1912 aged about 26, Frank married Mary Elizabeth Sargeson in Skipton, where their marriage was registered in the last quarter of that year.
Mary was born on 17th March 1870, meaning she was 42 years old and 15 years older than Frank.
The next year Mary gave birth to their daughter Doris, who was born on 18th May 1913.
War service:
We know Frank enlisted at Keighley but we don’t have an enlistment date for him. His war gratuity amount suggests he began his Army service in May 1917 and would have been 32 years old.
According to his medal records he had served with several regiments with several different service numbers. They were: 34th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (69613); 5th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment (50706); 2/9th Manchester Regiment (54346) before finally being transferred to the 2nd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment with the service number 31757.
WO-95/1729/2 war diary for the 2nd Battalion East Lancashire Regiment.
Reference map 51B.NW2. France. The village of Oppy lies to the North and Gavrelle is to the South of their front lines.
In the Field:
21st September 1918:
At 11 pm the line was advanced, under cover of a barrage, to CHUTNEY, CHEDDAR, CHESTNUT and CURRY. B & D Companies undertook the operations. Officers of B Company were 2nd Lieutenant Bleasdale & 2nd Lieutenant Kirby – D Company 2nd Lieutenant Baxter & 2nd Lieutenant Gregory. The Royal Berks advanced their line on our right and the Worcesters advanced on our left.
Result:- 7 prisoners & 1 dead German belonging to the 451st I.R. – Our casualties :- 2nd Lieutenant Gregory missing, 2 other ranks killed, 14 other ranks wounded. We captured one machine gun.
22nd September 1918:
In the morning three of our ‘Contact aeroplanes’ flew over our lines to observe our new front. Enemy shelled heavily – 10 casualties occurred. The enemy did not make any attempt to regain lost ground.
23rd September 1918:
C Company relieved B & D Companies in front line, at night heavy shelling took place. The SOS was sent up on our right but no attack followed. 2 enemy planes flew over our lines during the day.
24th September 1918:
A patrol of two sections of C Company under 2nd Lieutenant Kitson, but had to return on account of heavy enemy shelling. CADORNA & BLACK LINE were heavily shelled. Enemy aeroplane dropped leaflets.
25th September 1918:
A patrol of 1 section of C Company under 2nd Lieutenant Kitson went out to search for trench and organised shell holes in the vicinity of C.19.b.99.30. Organised shell holes found badly damaged.
Frank was killed in action during this period on 23rd September and was subsequently buried in grave 13 of row E, plot V. of Roclincourt Militay Cemetery which is just over a mile away from where they were fighting on the front line. That month saw 18 men from his East Lancashire battalion killed in action.
Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.
Four men were killed on the same day as Frank. Private Harold Baguley aged 20 and Private J. Callon were buried in the same row as Frank at Roclincourt.
The other two other men were Corporal Percy Watson aged 31 and Private W. Wolstenholme aged 29. For some reason they were buried a few miles away at Orchard Dump cemetery but that may be because of a change in the lines of evacuation that day.
The Craven Herald, 25 October 1918:
Mrs. Driver, of 14 Castle Street, Skipton, has received official information that her husband, Private F. Driver, of the East Lancs Regiment, was killed in action in France on September 23rd. In a letter from his platoon officer, deceased is spoken of as being a most willing soldier. A joiner by trade, he was, before joining up, employed by Mr. Feather at Earby.
Remembrance:
Frank is named on the Riddlesden Primitive Methodist Church War Memorial and on the Riddlesden War Memorial Institue board. His name was added to the Supplememntary Volume of the Borough of Keighley Great war roll of honour in 2024.
The family information submitted after the war was: Son of John Driver, of Riddlesden, Keighley, Yorks; husband of Mary E. Driver, of 23, The Avenue, Starbeck, Harrogate, Yorks. The personal inscription on his headstone from his wife and sisters was: EVER REMEMBERED BY HIS LOVING WIFE, CHILD & SISTERS.
Post war:
As Frank’s next of kin, Mary would have received any personal effects plus Frank’s war memorial plaque, King’s certificate and his service medals, which were the British War Medal and Victory Medal. She also received his remaining army pay of £6 6s. 3d on 1st February 1919 and a war gratuity of £5 10 s. od. on 16th December 1919.
Mary and Doris were living at 14, Castle Street in Skipton after the war. Mary was awarded a dependant’s pension for herself and Dorothy, the amount was 21 shillings and eight pence per week, beginning on 14th April 1919.
Mary later moved to 23, The Avenue in the Harrogate ward of Starbeck, North Yorkshire and was present there with Dorothy and the head of the household, her older brother George Sargeson, who was a bricklayer. Mary was the housekeeper and Dorothy was a whole-time scholar. Also living there at that time was George Sargeson a plumber aged 19, who was George senior’s nephew (and presumably Mary’s nephew too.)
They were still living there (without George junior) in 1939 and Dorothy was employed as a general clerk. We did not find any definitive death record for Mary.
Dorothy Driver died aged 77 years on 8th July 1990 and a probate record indicates she left a sum not exceeding £115,000.
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
1911 England Census
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
WO-95/1729/2 war diary for the 2nd Battalion East Lancashire Regiment.
National Library of Scotland. Reference map 51B.NW2. France.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
Gro War Death Army Other Ranks (1914 – 1921)
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
1921 Census Of England & Wales
1939 England and Wales Register
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
Craven’s Part in the Great War
Craven Herald Newspaper archives
