FRANK SALMON
Frank Salmon joined the New Army raised by Lord Kitchener after the outbreak of World War I. He was with the 11th Bn, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 123rd Brigade, of the 41st Division.
The 41st Division was formed as part of the Fifth New Army in September, 1915 and arrived in France in May 1916. They took part in the Battles of Flers-Courcelette, Le Transloy, Messines, and operations on the Flanders Coast. Between 20 and 25 September 1917 they were engaged in the Battle of the Menin Road. The Division went to Italy in November 1917, but by then Frank was dead.
During the war, the 41st Division had casualties numbering 32,158. Frank Salmon died on Friday, 21 September 1917. He was aged 34 and left a widow, Beatrice (sister of Beulah Nation) and two children.
Frank's body was not found, but his name is on Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing close to the village of Passchendaele in France. It can be found on the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which is 9 kilometres north-east of Ypres. Below is a picture of the Cemetery and Memorial. Frank's name appears on one of the panels on the left-hand side of the picture.
The Tyne Cot Memorial names 34,888 men who have no known grave and who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917. There are also approaching 12,000 graves here, some of which bear the words "An Unknown Soldier of the Great War" and "Known Unto God". It is possible, therefore, that Frank may be buried here in one of these graves.
The area is very quiet, surrounded by gently sloping farmland, and it is strange to imagine the mayhem that once raged here. The cemetery is kept care of by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and is the largest of their cemeteries anywhere in the world.