205187 Pte. Frank Mark Finan British Army 10th Btn Sherwood Foresters from:Dromore West, Sligo, Ireland (d.24th Aug 1918) Frank Finan was born on the 4th May 1894 in a village called Dromore West in County Sligo. As far as I know he was an only child. He lived in a one or two room house with his grandparents and two aunts and his mother. The house is still standing to this day.
He joined the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards on the 20th of Jan 1916 and was transferred to the Connaught Rangers 22nd of June 1916 then posted to the 3rd Battalion at Kinsale on the 4th of July 1916.
His transfer to the Royal Irish Rifles took place on the 1st of Nov 1916 and he was then transferred to the RFC as 3rd Class Airman on the 19th of December 1916.
He served with No.2 Balloon Section, RFC and was attached to 63rd Royal Naval Division from the 3rd to 24th of Sept 1917 for Infantry Training, after which he was transferred to 10th Battalion Notts & Derby Regiment.
Frank was 5ft 9 inches in height, with red hair and grey eyes.
There was mention in the 10th Bn history of a heavy gas attack on 15th August.
"All remained quiet until very early on 15th. About 12.15 a.m. the enemy started a very heavy gas bombardment on the whole area occupied by the 17th Division; mustard gas presominated. For three hours he kept up a steady stream of shells; he chiefly bombarded the ridges, and as the night was absolutely still the gas floated down into the valleys and clung to the dense undergrowth. The area shelled stretched from our support line some 2000 yards westward, and this all became saturated with the deadly stuff. The sunrise brought with it a ghastly state of affairs; the casualties from the gas poisoning steadily mounted up, and long strings of men with their eyes bandaged, each holding the man in front, trailed slowly backwards down to the dressing station. Lieut-Col King, D.S.O. and Adjutant Capt. G F March M.C. both became casualties, and in all the battalion sustained losses to 18 officers and 510 other ranks; a total which for the moment made it almost cease to exsist as a fighting unit; only the garrison of the forward posts escaped the effects of the gas." This is the date of the gas attack that Frank died from on the 24th of August 1918. His mother died 3 yrs to the day after Frank died, she had never married and the whole immediate branch of his family died out when he died. Frank is buried in Mont Huon Cemetery in France, he was 24 years old.
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