Lance Serjeant Frank Young, 17th King's Royal Rifle Corps
Posted: 29 Oct 2016 10:37
Frank Young was born in Padiham in 1881, the son of Francis James Young and Martha Young, formerly Martha Whitham. His father was a joiner. Frank initially trained as a joiner before moving to Liverpool around 1904 to work in insurance. When war broke out he volunteered for the King's Liverpool Regiment, serving at home in the 2/5 and 3/5 K.L.R. from October 1914 until February 1916. He trained with the 20th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps in Wellingborough through March, sailing from Southampton at the end of that month. The 20th was a pioneer battalion and he would have spent the summer of 1916 on construction work, building trenches and laying barbed wire. By mid-July the battalion had moved to support the effort on the Somme. Several officers of the 20th had links with the 17th King's Royal Rifles; war diaries show that the 17th suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Guillemont in early September and that, subsequently, the men of the 20th were given military training. Frank Young was probably transferred to the 17th King's Royal Rifle Corp around the second week in October. The 17th K.R.R.C. was soon in the thick of the fighting, as part of the battalion rotation at the Schwaben Redoubt. The British had been trying to take the Redoubt since 1st July and finally secured the last corner on the 14th October. The Germans, being desperate to recover it, launched repeated counter attacks. The 17th K.R.R.C. was defending the Schwaben Redoubt when the Germans launched an attack in the early morning of 21st October. Frank Young was hit by shrapnel. He lay for five days in a German dug-out, through the most grim conditions, before being taken to the 32nd Stationary Hospital at Wimereux. He died there, on Sunday 29th October 1916.
