Royal Engineers, Service no. 82715
Born: 8th November 1891. Died: 8th February 1952.
Frank was the son of Smith Backhouse (1853-1902) and Ann Pickard (1853-1897), and lived at Shillito’s Yard, Kippax, working as a miner.
He originally enlisted with the Miners Battalion, the 12th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, before transferring to the Royal Engineers. Frank married Hilda Ridsdale in Kippax on 20th September 1917. Hilda also worked at Barnbow Munitions Factory during the War. After the War, Frank returned to coal mining in Kippax, but in July 1939, he was seriously injured after being struck by a car driven by men from the RAF (story below):
During the Second World War, Frank’s son Charles Eric Backhouse enlisted and was injured. According to his mother, Hilda, Charles had been abandoned to the Germans, just as her husband had been left behind by the RAF men. When their daughter Margaret Elizabeth Backhouse was called up, she refused to serve, and Hilda used the opportunity to launch a tirade against the army (below). Frank’s health never recovered from the accident, and he passed away in 1952 aged 60:
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