SPRATTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

Frank was born in November 1892 in Wandsworth, Surrey, the son of Charles Capon, a domestic gardener, and his wife, Harriet. By 1911 he was working with his father as a gardener at the Friary Gardens in Old Windsor, Berkshire.

He then moved to Northamptonshire as he volunteered in September 1914 aged 20 and his attestation papers were signed in Northampton and his medical examination carried out at Creaton Hospital. He initially joined the Northamptonshire Regiment and was posted to France in September 1915 where he served for over a year. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in July 1915 and to Corporal in March 1916. Finally in August 1916 he was promoted to Sergeant.

He was transferred to the Training Reserve in Northampton in October 1917 but then signed up to continue for a while at the end of the war and spent time with Armies of Occupation in Benrath, Dusseldorf, serving as a Company Quartermaster Sergeant. He was finally demobilised on 31 March 1920. He was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Frank's name is on the Roll of Honour in Spratton Church, so it seems likely that he moved to live in Spratton after the war, as in September 1924 he married Emma May Holt of East Haddon. She died in 1971 aged 78 and Frank died in 1981 in Northampton.  He was not in Spratton for the 1921 census, nor is he on the 1939 List of Voters for Spratton.