Frank Antrobus

Frank Antrobus

Frank Antrobus was born on 19 July 1891, to James and Ellen Antrobus. Various records support this information, including the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses, the register of births, marriages and deaths and the 1939 register. However, other records, namely the Imperial War Museum site ‘Lives of the First World War’, suggest he was born in 1897, in Warrington. I believe that this was a different Frank Antrobus, who probably had no connections to the family from Moore.

So, Frank was born in Moore, the youngest of 12 children. In 1911, the family was living in one of the cottages called ‘West View’, on Runcorn Road, between the shop and Moore Lane. Frank was a house painter, a trade that he continued after the war.

He served in the Royal Flying Corps and then the 84th squadron of the Royal Air Force from13 November 1915 until 30 April 1920. This is corroborated by the Absent Voters list for spring 1919, where his regimental number is confirmed as 87837. The RAF muster roll tells us that he was an assistant armourer, earning 1/8 (per day? or hour?). The RAF website gives a little more information about the 84th squadron –

‘84 Squadron was born in January 1917, equipped with SE5 fighter aircraft and was soon despatched to France . During its 15 months service in WWI the Squadron’s pilots proved very successful and destroyed 129 enemy aircraft and 50 observation balloons. After spending a year as part of the Army of Occupation in post war Germany, the Squadron was disbanded as part of a major reduction in the Armed Forces in 1920’.

Soon after he came home, Frank married Minnie Clayton. In 1939, they were living at 1 Shirley Drive, Runcorn and Frank was a painter and decorator. They had two children, Frank and Barbara.

Frank died in 1960, when he was 69 years old.