Frank Russell Parnell

A Private with the 1st Battalion, Frank died on 17th of June 1944 aged 20.

Frank was born at Lowestoft on 11 May 1924, a son of Russell Martin and Alice Mary Parnell. In 1939 his family lived at 59 Fir Lane and Frank was a coal hawker’s assistant. 

Frank enlisted in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment and was transferred to the East Surrey Regiment on 21 October 1943 and he served with the 1st Battalion in Italy.  

On 17 June 1944 the 1st Battalion advanced towards Ciutta Della Pieve, near Orvieto. The Germans, holding the town, gave stiff resistance using machine-guns, mortars, and a self-propelled gun. The battle continued through the morning and at 9.50 a.m. British tanks arrived to give support and with his support A Company were able to press on with the attack and managed to get into the town. The attack was described as the bitterest fighting that the battalion had to engage in during the Italian campaign and it transpired that they were fighting against German paratroopers who were determined to hold their positions and fight to the last man. The battalion’s casualties were three officers and eleven men killed, including Frank; twenty-four men wounded and five men missing.