Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE FRANK SHAW 11/1089. Born in October 1893, Frank was the son of John and Eliza Shaw, of 15, Carlton Street, Hessle Road, Hull (CWGC address). A Bricklayer by trade (1911 Census). He had one older brother, Albert and two sisters, Alice and Lydia.
He enlisted at Hull City Hall in 1915 and joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. A veteran of Egypt and the Somme, Frank was killed in action on 3rd May 1917 as the Pals attacked German positions around Oppy Wood. He is buried in Orchard Dump Cemetery; a young man of 23. The Battalion war diary describes the scene:
“Our barrage started at 3.45am advancing at a rate of 100yds in four minutes and the Battalion followed 50yds in the rear of the barrage. It was dark, the smoke and dust caused by our barrage, and the hostile barrage, also the fact that we were advancing on a dark wood made it impossible to see when our barrage lifted off the German trench. Consequently the Hun had time to get his machine guns up. Machine guns were firing from within the wood from trees, as well as from the front trench, nevertheless the men went forward, attacked and were repulsed. Officers and NCO’s reformed their men in No Man’s Land under terrific fire and attacked again, and again were repulsed. Some even attacked a third time…..”
They attacked over ground strewn with the corpses of their fallen comrades amid the crash of shelling, the deadly rake of machine guns and the cries of the wounded.
