Frank Ingham

War Service

The “Your Country Needs You” poster had encouraged over one million men to enlist by January 1915 but this was not enough to keep pace with the mounting casualties. In January 1916 conscription was imposed on all single men aged between 18 and 41, the exceptions being: the medically unfit, clergymen, teachers and certain classes of industrial worker. A second Act, passed in May 1916, extended conscription to married men.
It is not known when Frank joined the 2/4 King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry at Normanton. The battalion landed at Le Havre on 15 January 1917, then moved approximately 140 miles in a north easterly direction, arriving at Neuvillette on 18/19 January. During the next five weeks the battalion worked on the construction of a railway, repaired dugouts, constructed/repaired trenches and continued training.
On the 25 February the training stopped when the battalion entered the lines. Over the next few months, the battalion was involved in a number of actions and suffered mounting casualties. During one such action, a fellow Altofts man serving in the battalion, Company Sergeant Major Mark Beevers, was added to the mounting toll of men “killed in action”.
The information and the quote are taken from the Battalion War Diary:
“In the Line (2.5.17):
The line was held as taken over the previous night. On the night of May 2nd other battalions came into the lines for the purpose of attacking the HINDENBERG LINE.
In the Line (3.5.17) 2.00am:
The HINDENBERG LINE was reached by our troops but was only occupied by us at certain points, other parts being established in shell holes close to the front line of trenches. Having suffered severe casualties, the attacking troops subsequently withdrew to the railway cutting.
In the Line (3.5.17) 9.00am
A further attack was made at 9.00am by the 2/5 KOYLI and 2/4 KOYLI. It was found impossible to advance, and again the attacking troops eventually withdrew to the railway cutting.”
Sadly, Frank became another casualty of this action on 3 May 1917 – he was 20 years old. The terrible news of losing yet another son came a little over two years after the news of the death of Frank’s brother Charles.
Frank has no known grave but is remembered on the Arras Memorial.
Situated in the western part of the town of Arras, the Arras Memorial commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918.

Family Life

Frank was born in 1898 in Newton, Wakefield, the fourth son of Joseph and Sarah Ingham and the younger brother of Rifleman 7432 Charles Ingham, King’s Royal Rifles.
Details of Frank’s early life is contained in the information about his brother Charles.
In 1911 Frank was 13 years old and still at school, however his stepfather Robert and three older brothers, George, Fred and Charles, were all working in the coal mining industry.

Arras Memorial