Sutton, Frank 1917.

Frank Sutton. Died 9th April 1917

Frank was born in 1890 to father Richard and mother Kate who had passed away in 1893. He was the third born and had three siblings, two brothers and a sister. By the age of twenty one, Frank had disappeared from the 1911 census, probably by this time he had emigrated to Manitoba, a central province in Canada. His father Richard had remarried in 1902 to Elizabeth, a Head Teacher at a local school. They lived in Pinewood Avenue in Crowthorne, Berkshire. Richard was to live until 1953, well into his nineties.
Frank probably believed it was the last he would see the last of the old country, but as with many new Canadians, he was drawn back to fight for the place of his birth. Frank was to see the end of his days on Vimy Ridge, a hill which the Canadians took in days whereas both the British and the French had failed over the previous two years. It was the first time the Candians had fought as a force in their own right and many today believe Vimy represents the time when this country came of age.

Name: SUTTON, FRANK
Initials: F
Nationality: Canadian
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment)
Unit Text: 78th Bn.
Age: 26
Date of Death: 09/04/1917
Service No: 216026
Additional information: Son of Richard Sutton, of “Devonia,” Pinewood Avenue, Crowthorne, Berks, England.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Memorial: VIMY MEMORIAL

Location Information: The Vimy Memorial overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge, about eight kilometres northeast of Arras on the N17 towards Lens. The memorial is signposted from this road to the left, just before you enter the village of Vimy from the south. The memorial itself is someway inside the memorial park, but again it is well signposted.
Historical Information: On the opening day of the Battle of Arras, 9 April 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting side by side for the first time, scored a huge tactical victory in the capture of the 60 metre high Vimy Ridge. After the war, the highest point of the ridge was chosen as the site of the great memorial to all Canadians who served their country in battle during the First World War, and particularly to the 60,000 who gave their lives in France. It also bears the names of 11,000 Canadian servicemen who died in France – many of them in the fight for Vimy Ridge – who have no known grave.

Garden House, Highwood, Burghfield, Berkshire (1901)
“Devonia,” Pinewood Avenue, Crowthorne, Berks, England. (where his father and stepmother lived at the time of Frank’sdeath in 1917)

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