Francis William Prescott – better known as Frank – was born on 17th March 1894, and was one of four children to William and Mary. William was an agricultural labourer from Somerset, and, by the time of the 1901 census, the family had settled in the village of Luccombe, in the western outreaches of the county.

Frank went to school in Allerford, before spending a year at Luccombe’s Church of England school – from 13th May 1907 to 29th May 1908. Now aged 14 years old, he was considered old enough to be earning his keep. He found work as a farm boy on a farm on the outskirts of the village, but with storm clouds brewing across the Channel, he was keen to play his part.

Little information is available about Frank’s military service, but it is clear that he enlisted in the first weeks of the war, as imperial fervour gripped the country. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry and, as a Private, was assigned to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion. Contemporary documents do not confirm either way, but as this particular troop was based at Devonport, Devon, for most of the war, it is unlikely that Private Prescott saw any action overseas.

Indeed, he was in barracks on 11th April 1915, when he passed away. Again, the cause is lost to time, but he was just 21 years of age when he died.

Francis ‘Frank’ William Prescott was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Luccombe Church Cemetery, not far from where his family still lived.

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Frank’s younger brother, Harold, also enlisted in the war. He joined the Royal Engineers as a Private and, unlike his brother, he did go to the Western Front.

Harold was caught up in the fighting, and received a gunshot wound to his arm. He recovered, but the injury dogged him. He was formally discharged on 14th May 1919, and found work as a lorry driver. Harold married Kathleen Peck in December 1929: the couple’s only child, Edward, was born just over a year later.

Harold spent his life in Somerset. He died in Exmoor in the spring of 1968, at the age of 71 years old.

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