Frank Aldwinckle

Name	Frank Aldwinckle
Corps	Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment) 7th Battalion
Rank	Private
Service No.	26804
Date/Place of entry	Derby
Date of death	25 January 1917  Killed in Action
Memorial/Grave	Basra Memorial, Panel 34

Frank Aldwinckle was born in 1884, the second of five sons born to Cecil Aldwinckle and his Sheffield-born wife Frances. Cecil was born Cottingham, a son of Bartholomew Aldwinckle, and grew up there during the 1860s and early 1870s. Bartholomew had been a farmer but was reduced to labouring during Cecil’s childhood. Cecil moved to Ilkeston on the Derbyshire – Nottinghamshire boundary and worked in the coalmines in various roles; as a sinker, a mining contractor and a labourer. His five sons all worked in the mines. Frank was a hewer and in the 1911 census was listed as an injured miner.  

He joined the Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment), 7th Battalion at Derby, as did his brother Albert Edward Aldwinckle. No service record has survived for either man but Albert Edward’s Silver War Badge entry says he joined on 7th December; it is possible that they volunteered at the same time. The 7th Battalion was formed in August 1914 as part of the First New Army, and embarked for Gallipoli in June the following year. The brothers may have been involved in fighting there in the latter stages of the campaign.

Towards the end of January 1916 the 7th Battalion was evacuated to Egypt having suffered heavy casualties from combat, disease and atrocious weather. It moved on to Mesopotamia the following month. and later engaged in various actions, principally the Battle of Kut al Amara. Frank was killed in action on 25 January1917, the day the soldiers of the 7th were among the forces that captured enemy trenches on Hai Salient, south-west of Kut.

He is listed on the Basra Memorial which commemorates more than 40,500 members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921 and whose place of death is not known.

He was survived by his parents and four brothers.

For an account of the historic extended Aldwinckle family see John Bartholomew Aldwinckle. The following list gives the names of all known servicemen who were descended from Aldwinckles living Cottingham and Middleton in the nineteenth century.

(I also have information on a further five servicemen descended from the Aldwinckle family of Drayton in Leicestershire whose ancestors moved there from Cottingham in the eighteenth century. They are Ernest Aldwinckle, George Harry Aldwinckle, William Harold Aldwinckle, Herbert Aldwinckle and William James Aldwinckle. Please contact me <cottinghamsoldiers@gmail.com> if you would like to know more.)

Servicemen descended from Thomas Aldwinckle (1816-1899):
William Augustus Aldwinckle, Ralph Aldwinckle and Ernest Henry Aldwinckle.

Servicemen descended from Henry Aldwinckle (1770-1842):
John Bartholomew Aldwinckle, Charles Henry Aldwinckle, Arthur Edwin Aldwinckle, Frederick Wade Coles, Albert Edward Aldwinckle, Archibald Aldwinckle, Frank Aldwinckle, Harry Aldwinckle, William John Aldwinckle,  Harry Aldwinckle, George Robert Aldwinckle, Thomas Aldwinckle and Walter Aldwinckle.

Servicemen descended from William Aldwinckle (1807-1891):
Bartle Essex Aldwinckle, Charles Reginald Burdett, Alfred Norman Burdett and William Edward Burdett.

Servicemen descended from John Aldwinckle (1817-1884):
John Aldwinckle, Percy Aldwinckle, Henry Aldwinckle and Bernard Aldwinckle.