Frank Mead was born in St. Margarets, near Great Gaddesden, Hertfordshire in the spring of 1898 and baptised on Sunday, 21st August the same year, at St John the Baptist Church in the village. He was the only child born to Frederick Mead and Fanny Dean. His father Frederick was a ‘Stockman’ and ‘Farm Labourer’ and the family lived at the quirkily named ‘Covetous Corner’, at St. Margarets between the villages of Great and Little Gaddesden.

On the outbreak of war, Frank was not old enough to join the Colours and he was subsequently called up under the Military Service Act in 1916 when he was eighteen. He went to Bedford where he attested and enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment in January 1917 and was sent to undergo basic training with the 3rd Battalion at Felixstowe. When he was sent overseas, he was posted to the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, It is not known exactly when Frank went to France, but it was unlikely to have been before June 1917 and was more probably on the 5th September when a draft of thirty-eight men joined the unit.

On the 4th October Frank fought in the Battle of Brooseinde, which would prove to be the most successful allied attack of the Third Battle of Ypres. Following this action, the Battalion was subjected to six days of heavy German shelling which culminated with the failed attack at the Battle of Poelcapelle and which proved costly for the 1st Bedfords. The War Diary records that: “10 Oct 1917 - Ridge Wood Battn was relieved by 7th Bttn K.R.R.Corps relief complete by 11.30 pm Battn withdrew to RIDGE WOOD. From the 4th to 10th The Battn was subjected to Heavy shelling. Total casualties - 4 officers Killed, 6 wounded, 35 [Other Ranks] Killed, 97 wounded, 4 missing.”. Frank survived the engagements, but his luck was soon to run out when the Battalion fought in the Second Battle of Passchendaele, which was the culminating attack of the Third Battle of Ypres.

In the low ground west of the Passchendaele Ridge, three months of constant shelling had blocked the watercourses that normally provided drainage. When rain began falling on the night of the 4th October and continued intermittently for the next three days, the battlefield was once again transformed into a quagmire, making movement extremely difficult. It was in these horrendous conditions that the Battle was fought and at some point, between the 26th and 28th October Frank was wounded. Altogether the 1st Bedfordshires incurred 103 casualties over these three days in the Front Line.

He was taken out of the line to a Field Ambulance, before being evacuated to a Casualty Clearing Station. It was here, six days later, that he finally succumbed to his wounds.

Frank died on Saturday, 3rd November 1917. He had been at the Front for only sixty days when he died.

Frank is Remembered with Honour in Wimereux Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France where he is interred in Grave VI. G. 3A. 

The inscription on his headstone, requested by his mother Fanny, reads: “WE FEEBLY STRUGGLE THEY IN GLORY SHINE”, a line from the Lutheran hymn ‘For All the Saints’ which enjoyed huge popularity at the time of the Great War.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

Frank was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.