Frank was on a training ship in the Mersey after leaving school and had joined HMS Formidable in August 1914.
He was one of 600 men lost on New Year’s Day 1915 when a German submarine, U24, torpedoed his ship, he was 17. Carlisle Grammar School Memorial Register erroneously recorded his death as June 1 1915 (Great War, Midshipman (probationary), R.F.R., H.M.S. ” Formidable.” Drowned, June 1, 1915.) HMS Formidable was the first British battleship sunk in the First World War. The fleet had been on manoeuvres on December 31 and had gone over the same ground in so doing. It was a clear night with a full moon, and so proved an easy target for the U boat. As HMS Formidable was the last in line she became the one attacked. Commander KGB Dewar on board the HMS Prince of Wales later wrote that hostile ships should have been expected in the area and as this was simply an exercise such a risk should not have been taken.
Of the 747 men on the Formidable, 34 Officers and 513 ratings died. They were either blown up by the torpedo attack, drowned, or died of exposure. Of these only 18 bodies were recovered; Frank’s body was not one of them. Some survivors were brought in by HMS Topaze, some by HMS Diamond, some by the Provident (a trawler), and some spent more than 22 hours battling the seas in atrocious conditions before landing at Lyme Regis in Dorset. Of the 72 or 73 in the lifeboat, only 33 survived. Mark Potts and Tony Marks’ book “Before the Bells have Faded” contain graphic accounts from some of the survivors of their ordeal. The book also lists the whole ship’s company..
