BORN ALNWICK, 1883. SON OF CHURCHILL & SUSAN FLINTOFF WHO LIVED IN ALNWICK, NORTHUMBERLAND. WELL KNOWN IN HULL’S COAL EXPORT INDUSTRY. FOR SIX YEARS HE WAS THE HULL BASED MANAGER OF W.F. RUSSEL & SONS LIMITED, THE COAL EXPORTING FIRM.
HE ENLISTED IN THE “HULL COMMERCIALS”. WAS PROMOTED TO FIRST LIEUTENANT. KILLED AT THE SOMME, ON 25/06/1916, AGED 33.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 07/07/1916. *
HIS NAME IS ON ST MARYS CHURCH, LOWGATE MEMORIAL. PROBATE ADDRESS. BURIED AT BERTRANCOURT MILITARY CEMETERY, SOMME, FRANCE. HIS BROTHER, PRIVATE, ARTHUR JOHN FLINTOFF, WAS KILLED IN 1915.
Born in 1883, Randolph was the fourth of nine children to Churchill and Susan Flintoff of Hill House, Alnwick, Northumberland.
Before the war he was highly respected in Hull commercial circles and had been manager of Russell & Sons Coal Merchants Exporters on Marlborough Street for six years. He was a popular member of Hull Exchange. Enlisted on the outbreak of hostilities. On 28/12/1914, he was commissioned into the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals.
Randolph was killed in action on 25th June 1916 close to ‘Bess Street’ and ‘Warley Avenue’ trenches opposite Serre, when a bombardment disturbed buried gas cylinders and their deadly content was released into the lines. Perhaps ironically, Lieutenant Flintoff was the battalion Gas Officer and was renowned for taking great care to protect his men from gas. He is buried at Bertrancourt Military Cemetery; he was 33 years old.
His death compounded the family misery. Randolph’s brother, Arthur, had emigrated to Australia in 1909 and had enlisted to fight with the Imperial Force there. He served in Egypt before being sent as part of invasion fleet aiming to seize control of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli. He was killed in action on 1st May 1915.
