Frank Stanley Dorling

A Private with the 8th Battalion, Frank died on 18th of July 1916 at the age of 22. 

Frank was born at Lowestoft in 1894, a son of Edwin Thomas and Louisa Dorling. From 7 May 1900 Frank was a pupil at Kirkley School and his family lived at 134 Beaconsfield Road. By 1911 they were living at 241 London Road South, and Frank was an assistant in his father green-grocer’s business. 

Frank volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 13927, and arrived in France with the 8th Battalion on 25 July 1915.

On 14 July 1916 the 8th Battalion moved into positions at Bernafay Wood. The battalion was subjected to heavy shelling on the 14th and intermittent shelling throughout the 15th and 16th. On 17th July they moved to Billon Wood and, on the 18th, to bivouacs. 

Frank was reported wounded and missing on 18 July 1916, but the battalion’s war diary records no casualties for that date. It is likely that he was wounded and ‘missing’ at some point from 14 to 18 July, but it was the 18th July when this fact was officially noted. It was not until September 1917 that it was concluded that he had died of wounds on 18 July.