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Frank (1) Livesey was born in 1895 to parents Joseph (1) Livesey and his second wife Emma Stubbs. His birth certificate [Birth Index: Salford 8d 113, 1895 (Dec)] states that he was born on November 3rd 1895 at 36, Quay Street in Salford. His mother, residing at that address, was the informant.
The 1901 Census finds him at age 5 living with his father at 14, Quay Street.
He served in the Army during WW1. His pay book shows that he served first with the 2nd/9th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment in the Territorial Force and was then transferred to the Royal West Kents. According to family anecdote he suffered many terrible battle experiences, especially at the Somme; he was taken prisoner by the Germans, had his teeth smashed by a guard's rifle butt and was subjected to forced labour in a salt mine; released at the War's end, he had to make his own way home on foot across the vastness of France, starving so badly that his belly became distended.
A Service Record for him survives in the National Archives. This shows that he was drafted into the Army on February 2nd 1917, although he was "deemed" to have been enlisted since October 1st 1916. His address was then 78, Harrietta Street in Salford. He gave his age as 20 years [but actually 21 years] and 2 months, and his occupation as boiler and steam pipe coverer. His height was 5 feet 3 inches. He named his mother as his next of kin. He was assigned the initial Service No. 267180 when he entered the Middlesex Regiment. Subsequently posted to the British Expeditionary Force, he went to France in September 1917. Shortly before making that journey he was in the Bridge Camp, Canterbury where, on September 9th, he overstayed a pass by failing to return to camp by midnight. For this offence the awarded punishment was confinement to barracks for 7 days and loss of 3 days' pay, but in the event this was probably reduced because, on September 13th, he made the crossing from Folkestone to Boulogne and arrived at the 41 Infantry Base Depot at Etaples the following day. He was then transferred on the 17th to the 3rd/4th Battalion of the Royal West Kents with service number G-21338. He was then "in the Field" from September 27th. He transferred to the regiment's 2nd Battalion on February 20th 1918. He went missing in action in the week March 21-18th 1918, officially recorded as missing on April 16th. He had been taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to the Stendal prison camp. There exist many testimonies as to the horrendous treatment to which many prisoners here were subjected. Upon the cessation of hostilities Frank (1) was released and was despatched to Calais on November 18th, then repatriated to Britain on the 22nd. He arrived at Dover on November 26th and was demobilised on January 22nd 1919.
His entry in the National Roll of the Great War reads as follows:
LIVESEY, F., Private, Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)
Joining in November 1916, he crossed to France in the following August [no - in September, according to his Service Record], and saw heavy fighting in the Battles of Lens, Cambrai, and the Somme. He was taken prisoner at St. Quentin in March 1918, and was released from captivity in September of the following year [no - in November 1918, according to his Service Record]. Demobilised two months later, he holds the General Service and Victory Medals.
78, Harrietta Street, Broughton.
Upon returning to England he convalesced at some kind of nursing home - a photograph survives which shows him and many other demobbed servicemen assembled outside the building.
Around 1922, still unmarried, he became the partner of Maud Ethel (nee Bone) (MEB), who had recently left her husband Henry Hanlon. Not much is known of how they came to meet in Manchester in the early Twenties, but MEB said she first set eyes upon Frank (1) at one of the venues - typically working-men's clubs - in which he sang or stage-acted, having been introduced there by the friends with whom she took up lodgings when she left the Hanlon household.
Further details of the life of MEB and her ancestry can be found on this page in the Woodhurst Family History website.
He and MEB subsequently produced two non-identical twin daughters and one son, all born in Manchester. One of these children, Emmeline Margaret, died in 1928 from diphtheria [Death Index: Manchester N. 8d 773, 1928 (March)] and was buried in Manchester General (Harpurhey) Cemetery [Consecrated Section 1095].
Around 1934 they moved from Manchester to Middlesex, eventually settling at 24, Dawlish Drive in Ruislip, where they are found in the relevant Electoral Registers from 1934-35 onwards.
Frank (1), who had been working on boiler-making before WW1, had (according to his daughter) no problems in finding suitable engineering work locally.
They moved to Builth Wells in Breconshire soon after the outbreak of WW2. They lived at several addresses there until settling in a tiny cottage adjoining Llanelwedd Villa. Neither of them could obtain proper war work at first, and had to go away to Merthyr Tydfil for some time for specialised engineering training. They were among the first wave of such trainees, who were specially trained to serve as trainers and supervisors themselves of employees to be engaged subsequently for new workplaces in Builth devoted to the making of armaments.
In late 1940, hearing that his mother Emma was seriously ill, Frank (1) travelled by himself from Builth up to Manchester to see her. She died shortly after his return to Builth.
It was during this period in Builth that Frank (1) became unwell with renal tuberculosis, probably a consequence of his earlier privations in WW1. In the end he had to be hospitalised, first in the Builth Cottage Hospital and subsequently in the Talgarth Sanatorium. He remained there for some months until discharging himself, mainly because his own consultant had been suffering from kidney failure and had committed suicide. Back in Builth, he soon afterwards became very ill and was forced to return to the Cottage Hospital. He died there on June 14th 1943, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Matthew at Llanelwedd. A short obituary notice was published as follows (publisher and date not known):
LLANELWEDD
LATE MR. F. LIVESEY. - Mr. Frank Livesey, Llanelwedd Cottage, whose death at the age of 47 was reported in last week's JOURNAL, was a native of Manchester and was in the engineering trade. Nearly three years ago he and his family evacuated themselves from Middlesex and came to live here. Mr. Livesey served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in the Great War, taking part in the Battle of the Somme and other engagements and being finally taken prisoner. The funeral took place at St. Matthew's Church on Saturday and the services were taken by the Ven. Archdeacon H. J. Stewart (vicar of Builth Wells). Mourners were Mrs. Livesey (widow), Mrs. George Hogger (daughter), Master Harold Livesey (son), Mrs. E. [Eliza Ann] Hogger, Mr. and Mrs. Bert [Albert Cyril] Hogger and Miss A. [Alice Hilda] Hogger, Gro [sic] Villa. Pte. George Hogger (son-in-law) is in North Africa. Bearers were Messrs. Haydn Dudson, Harold Teague, T. J. Jones (Bridge Restaurant), T. Lewis (Llanelwedd Terrace), H. Kitchen and Gwilym Pugh, and the funeral arrangements were carried out by Mr. Walter J. Lewis.
His grave did not originally bear either a headstone or any other feature identifying it as his own, but an inscribed plaque was set upon it by his only grandson in April 1987.
MEB died at Alton Community Hospital in Hampshire on January 16th 1996, aged 98.