Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen
Hill 60: May 1st, 1915
Introduction
Tales from the Front (36) tells the story of Frank Wilcox, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Private Wilcox had served with the local militia before joining the First Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment. He came to France in autumn 1914, fighting at Hill 60 the next year, where he went missing, another plausible victim of poison gas on the evening of May 1st, 1915.
Tales from the Front (36): Background
Immigrant labourers
Local records show that Wilcox’s paternal line had a strong presence in Woodlands, Dorset, a tiny settlement (pop. 454, 1841) lying between Cranborne and Wimborne. The family laboured in the fields. Jacob, his father, had married a local woman, a labourer’s daughter, with whom he had two children. The couple broke with their family traditions, for they decided to leave Woodlands. As did many rural labouring families, they moved to the Bournemouth area. They settled in Heatherlands, a rural development to the west, but she died. Jacob remarried. His second wife, a shepherd’s daughter, a much younger woman, came from the Blandford area. More children came along, including Frank. According to the census reports, Jacob Wilcox always worked as a labourer, digging gravel in 1901. The growth of Bournemouth, including the western settlements, had always offered plenty of opportunity for men to labour on its building sites and roads.
Labouring opportunities
Eleven days after Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, Frank Wilcox enlisted. Service with the local militia had already given him the basics of military ways. He stood over 170 centimetres; he would have featured among the battalion’s taller men. By this time, he had reached 25 years of age. This would have made him one of the older recruits. No evidence of a marriage has emerged. According to the 1911 census, both he and his father worked as labourers. Before his posting to France in October, he went absent, for which he lost six days’ pay. No further offences, however, appeared on his record. In addition to his experience with the militia, Frank would have discovered that developing fighting conditions offered plenty of opportunity for labourers. The open style of warfare soon changed. His digging skills would have served well in building trenches.
Tales from the Front (36): Hill 60
Kipling’s Law
The English, coming to France in 1914, thought they inhabited a world governed by ‘The Law’ of Rudyard Kipling. This sacred code divided soldier from savage. The Marquess of Queensbury applied the same code to turn bare-fisted brawling into civilised physical sport: competition hard-wired with rules. You fought fair, you stood your ground, and you looked your enemy in the eye. Around these rules, the idea of pluck percolated. If a military square broke into a wreck, you still had to ‘play up! play up! and play the game!’ By remaining on the burning deck, victory would come. Thus, the ‘Great Game’ progressed on the village green, sunlit through a filter of resolute oaks. But on May 1st, 1915, a greenish cloud repealed Kipling’s Law. In that moment, the ‘Great Game’ ended, and industrialised slaughter began, with Frank Wilcox a victim. It wasn’t cricket; pluck alone no longer sufficed.
May 1st, 1915
On this day, the gas came over perhaps too fast for anyone at Hill 60 and the nearby trenches to comprehend the danger. Many seemed to have succumbed to panic and either lay still or sought to hide at the bottom of the trenches. This proved a fatal choice, because the gas, heavier than air, sank around their prone forms. Diarist Sergeant Shephard, recognising the need for action, kept moving. He helped some with respirators, putting them into sitting positions. Then he ran extra ammunition along the trenches. Parties organised by him accompanied gassed survivors back to the support trenches. ‘When I smelt gas and felt sick, I continued to draw in air through my wet cloth around my mouth, exhale through my nose … I felt groggy at times but kept very busy and scraped through.’ Private Frank Wilcox, however, went missing, perhaps one of those gassed.
Aftermath
Both Frank’s parents survived the war, living into the 1920s. An elder brother joined up about the same time as Frank, but his medical condition caused his immediate discharge. An older half-brother, perhaps too old for the war, appears to have emigrated to Australia. A younger sister worked in service but became a single mother. She soon married but had entered widowhood by 1921.
Two hours of poison gas, discharged into their lines on May 1st, devastated the First Dorsets. They lost one man shot or killed by artillery fire, as well as a man wounded. Many more, however, had died from gassing in those two hours. Even more suffered a lingering death over the next few days, before, once again, the gas came over on May 5th. Sergeant Shephard’s diary chronicles the despair facing the healthy survivors. For them, life consisted of searching and accounting for their dead comrades.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (36) has explored the background, life, and military career of Frank Wilcox (1888-1915). A native of Bournemouth, he laboured for a living and gave his spare time to serving with the militia. He answered the call soon after the declaration of war. Having come to France in the early winter of 1914, he lost his life among the gas clouds which came over Hill 60 on May 1st, 1915.
‘Tales from the Front’
A collection of personal stories honouring the natives of Victorian Bournemouth who gave their lives on the battlefield and the regiments with which they served. Blending social and military history with genealogical insight, it explores their roots, families, occupations, and the ultimate sacrifices they made for their country.
The posts weave genealogical data together with eyewitness accounts found in war diaries, contemporary press coverage, and official military histories. The series offers a powerful and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes offset with live accounts of battlefield action.
Serving as a companion and continuation of Victorian Bournemouth, Tales from the Front forms part of News from the Past: History for the Rest of Us.
References
For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). For War Diaries, go here. See also here. The featured picture shows an imagined scene—genealogical information based on available sources.
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