AN EMOTIVE & CLASSIC "PASSCHENDAELE MUD"
DEATH PLAQUE.
To: G/21922. Pte FRANK ERNEST BARTON.
KILLED-IN-ACTION
25th September 1917
(Age 37)
1st Royal West Surrey Regt. (Originally with East Surrey Regt)

Born 1880 Melksham, Wiltshire.
Son of William James Barton who was a Boot & Shoe Maker and the pre-war Melksham Town Crier. Enlisted Ealing. A resident of Hanwell, Frank was a Painter & Decorator in West London.

Frank has no known grave. Commemorated on TYNE COT MEMORIAL, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 14 to 17 and 162 to 162A.

(BACKGROUND HISTORY)...and the cost of our freedom.
PTE FRANK ERNEST BARTON (1st Royal West Surrey Regt )

On 25th September 1917 The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, as part of 100th Brigade, were defending trenches on the Menin Road near Veldhoek. The action was fought during atrocious condition in the infamously deep & cloying mud of Passchendaele in Flanders Fields.
The Germans attacked the British trenches with a massive & prolonged artillery bombardment which practically wiped out the front-line. This was followed by waves of infantry attacks which broke through the British line. Whilst one company of The Queen's held out, it was impossible to get any support or reinforcements through because of the barrage. The two front line companies lost all their officers and most of their men. During this blood bath, The Queens had over 400 casualties of which over 280 were killed or missing. Frank Barton was one of these men of whom no trace was ever found, their bodies lost for ever in the deep mud & shell holes. The battle at Veldhoek was one of several that made up the Third battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele.

The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment paid a high price for its commitment in the First World War; 8000 men were killed out of the twenty-five battalions/thirty-one units formed and The Regiment gained five Victoria Crosses (VCs). In the 1st Battalion alone, five commanding officers, two majors, sixty-one company officers and 1,133 NCOs and men were killed in action. (Each battalion was about one thousand strong and was organised into an Headquarters Company and four rifle companies).

The first battalions to see action in the First World War were the Regulars of 1st & 2nd Battalions. The 1st arrived in France in 1914, as part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. The 2nd joined the British Expeditionary Force in September 1914 and joined the 22nd Brigade of the 7th Division. The scale of casualties in both battalions was horrific; by the end of the first week of November 1914 there were only thirty-two survivors out of a total of 998 men from the 1st Battalion. The 2nd Battalion had suffered 676 casualties. Their ranks were to be filled by Territorials and men from Kitchener’s “New Army” (which included Frank Barton from the East Surrey), and then Conscripts.

The 1st Battalion fought at Mons, on the Marne and the Aisne, Ypres, the Aubers Ridge, Loos on the Somme, Festubert, The Hindenburg Line, Bellecourt, Broodseinde, Passchendaele and Arras. When it came out of the line in November 1918, only seventeen men were left out of the all ranks, who had gone to France in 1914. Frank is commemorated on Melksham war memorial & in the local church.

Census Details: 1891. Age 10. Melksham, Wilts (father was WILLIAM JAMES BARTON (1831-1909)..then the Melksham town crier !
1901. Age 20. West Ealing, Middlesex.
( painter & decorator )
1911. Age 30. 115 Felix Road, West Ealing,
( living with brother )
1912. Age 31. 5th October. Married to Elsie Lucy Standfield (Age 26) Living at 168 Greenford Ave, Hanwell
(daughter of a farmer) London.

PLAQUE IN 100% MINT STATE. £95

PASSCHENDAELE ........"Lest We Forget"