Corporal Francis (Frank) William Nelson

31006 Royal Flying Corps & Royal Air Force

Born May 1887, Glenridding. Died May 1944 Chorley Aged 56

Son of Elizabeth Nelson of High and Low Rake Glenridding

Husband of Ivy Bagnall

Father of Winston and Clifford Nelson

Francis (Frank) William Nelson was baptised at Patterdale Church on the 2nd June 1887. He was the son of Elizabeth Nelson, who was unmarried at the time of his birth. She lived with her family at High Rake, Glenridding, where her father William worked as a miner at Greenside Mine, who had moved to Glenridding with his wife Mary (nee Shaw) from Hartsop, which is where Elizabeth had been born.

As a boy Frank lived with his mother and grand parents at Low Rake Glenridding. He would have attended Patterdale School with contemporaries such as Ernest Chugg, and Fred Dewis who also grew up at the Rakes. After leaving school Frank moved to Manchester to work as a joiner, and by 1911 was living there with his his Aunt Mary and her family, the Sanders. On the 14th march 1914 Frank himself got married, to Ivy Bagnall. They settled in Ashton under Lyne, where their first son Winston was born in December 1914. They had another son, Clifford, born in August 1917.

Frank enlisted on the 7th June 1916 into the Royal Flying Corps, where his skills as a Carpenter would have been in great demand. We do not have any great details of his time in the service despite having his service record (see below) - which seems to imply that the previous version had been destroyed at some point. It appears that he was appointed appointed an air Mechanic 1st class on August 1917, and a Corporal on the 13th March 1918. When the RAF was formed in April 1918 he was duly transferred, and on the 23rd March 1919 he was transferred to the RAF Base Station at Heaton Park, where other men of the Dale such as Brownrigg Thompson also saw service in the war.  He was transferred to the RAF Reserve on the 23rd April 1919, and finally released from service on the 30th April 1920. We have not been able to find his Medal Index Card and are not sure whether he saw service overseas but have assumed given his length of service that he might have done and therefore qualified for the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

After the war we so far not found out anything about what happened to Frank, Ivy and the boys. We believe that Frank died in Chorley in Lancashire in May 1944 aged 56 and that Ivy died in Farnworth Lancashire in March 1952 at the age of 61. Frank is remembered on the Glenridding Village Hall Roll of Honour alongside his childhood friends and neighbours Ernest Chugg and Frank Dewis and many others.

In terms of the rest of his family Frank’s mother Elizabeth never married and died in early 1925 at the age of 68, living at 4 Low Rake with her brother Aaron, Frank’s Uncle, who continued to live there until his death in 1965 at the age of 94.

If you can add anything to the story of Frank or his family please contact us.