Category: Military
Rank: Private L/7799 & L/13651
Regiment or Ship: 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regiment
Service Number(s): L/7799 & L/13651
Occupation: Career soldier as in 1911 census he is listed as a soldier in the Royal Sussex Regiment.
Date of Birth: 12.1886
Place of Birth: Hooe, East Sussex
Date of Death: 02.12.1919
Place of Death: Connaught Military Hospital, North Camp, Aldershot.
Place of Burial / Memorials:
Churchyard of St. Oswald’s Church, in Hooe (official War Grave). Listed on the memorial in Church nave.
Address: Quartered in the Connaught Barracks, Rawalpindi, Punjab, India. (1911 Census),
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Parents:
Frank William, the youngest son of Thomas and Mary Pocock was born in, in Hooe. He was christened on the 20th February 1887 in the Church of St. Oswald, in the village of Hooe – the churchyard in which he was to be buried just over twenty years later.
The family hasn’t been found in the 1901 census, but in that of 1891, Thomas Pocock, the father, aged 78, was 28 years older than his wife and had a son, obviously from a previous marriage, of the same age as she was. According to this census, all members of the family were born in Hooe.
No record, however, of a marriage of the parents, Thomas Pocock to Mary anybody, between 1870 and 1890 has been found so, perhaps, because of their ages, they decided that it wasn’t necessary.
Siblings:
Thomas Pocock born in 1841, in Hooe – no record of any marriage
George Pocock born in 1876, in Hooe – no record of any marriage
Frederick Pocock born in 1879, in Hooe. He married Sarah Mitchell, in the district of Hailsham, in 1900, and they had the following children:
Gladys Mary Pocock born 1902, in Battle
Phyllis Hilda Pocock born 1905, in Battle
Clifford John Pocock born 1907, in Battle
Frank Pocock born 1910, in Battle
There are no records of Frank Pocock marrying.
First World War Experience
Frank joined the Royal Sussex Regiment several years before the First World War started but none of his military service records have survived that would confirm this. His Medal Roll Index Card (MRIC) does exist and this tells us that his initial service no. was L/7799 and this was changed to L/13651, when the war started and the army was put on a war footing.
According to this MRIC, he entered the “Asiatic Theatre of War” on 17th August 1915 and the stamp across the card, “IND.GS.AFGN.NWFF.1919”, tells us that he was based in India, on General Service, in the North-Western Front Force, fighting in Afghanistan, until some time in 1919. Though he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1911 or thereabouts there was no “Asiatic Theatre of War” until 1915 and hostilities, apropos to the First World War, started there – prior to this the Army was there to control the Afghan rebels and other Indian groups seeking independence.
Between 1918 and 1919, there were two influenza pandemics that struck the world. The second outbreak was because of the war and the carnage of the battlefields, and was a more-deadly, mutated version of the first. It seems that Frank may have caught this second outbreak and was sent home to the Connaught Military Hospital, North Camp, Aldershot for treatment but, while there in late 1919, he contracted bronchial pneumoniaand on 2nd December 1919 he died.
Frank was awarded the usual medals given to those who fought in the war, the “Victory”, the “1915 Star”, and the “British Medal”. He also received the “Indian General Service Medal”, with a clasp, for the 1919 North West Frontier operation.
Additional Information
Other addresses: 1891 census – School Farm House, Hooe, Sussex.