Lieutenant in the 1/4th (Territorial) Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Killed in action, aged 21. He is buried in plot B. 72 at the Authuile Military cemetery on the Somme.
Frank Robson Best was born on 26 February 1894, one of the four children of William Findlay Best (1865-1942) and Ellen Ann Best née Westwell (1869-1948). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1894 in the Preston registration district, Lancashire. On 25 March 1894 he was baptised at Christ Church, Preston, where the baptismal register shows his family living at 5 Stanley Terrace, Fishergate Hill, Preston and that his father was a hop merchant.
In the 1901 census he is shown as a schoolboy boarding at a school run by the sisters Mary B. and Clara B. Ralfs at 29 Harrowside Lane, Blackpool, Lancashire. Also staying there on the night of the census as visitors were two of his siblings: Hilda Best (1896-1971) and Marjorie Constance Best (1899-1992).
He spent 3.5 years at Malvern College from 1908 to 1911 and the 1911 census confirms him boarding at Malvern College, College Road, Malvern, Worcestershire. He left college to take up a position in his father's hop business.
On 24 February 1915 he obtained a commission as a Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 1st/4th Territorial Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and entered France on 11 November 1915. He was serving as a Temporary Lieutenant in his regiment when he was killed in action on 2 January 1916. His body was buried in Row B, Grave 72 in the Authuile Military Cemetery, 24 Rue d'en Bas, 80300 Authuille, France.
Probate records confirm that his address had been Altadore, Ribbleton, Preston, Lancashire. Administration of his estate was granted on 15 February 1916 to his father who was described as a best hop merchant. His effects were listed as £522-10s-7d. His army effects totalling £46-9s-9d were sent to his father on 20 April 1916.
He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and Victory Medal. These were sent to his father at 6 Cannon Street, Preston, Lancashire.
He is shown as Lieut. Best F.R. 1/4TH L.N.LANCS.REG. on the London hop trade war memorial at 32-32 Borough High Street, London, SE1. He is also commemorated as F. R. Best on the Malvern College WW1 war memorial panels, as Frank R. Best on the war memorial at St Mary Magdalene Church, Farringdon Lane, Ribbleton, Preston, PR2 6RD, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Whilst he is shown as having been killed in action on his medal card, in his entry in the Army Register of Soldiers Effects and on Probate records, the Malvern College First World War Casualty website states: 'A fortnight before his death he was struck by a piece of shrapnel but only bruised. He was killed in France on Jan. 2nd. His Colonel wrote: "He never suffered, as he died in his sleep in his dug-out".
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk and Andrew Behan.
