Frank Ward was the son of William and Sarah Ward of Willenhall, Staffs. Employed by Beddow & Sturmey, lockmakers of Willenhall, he enlisted with the Territorial Army in 1912 at Wolverhampton, and was called up on 4th August 1914, the day war was declared. He arrived at Le Havre, France on 6th March 1915, and went immediately to the front in Flanders, on the borders of France and Belgium. For the next four years, apart from spells of leave, that was where he served; many times he and his colleagues had to retrieve wounded men from the trenches, and from No Man’s Land while under rifle, machine gun and shell fire. Twice commended for his conduct while under fire, he was awarded the Military Medal in July 1918; with a colleague he had volunteered to retrieve wounded from Gorre Chateau, all the way there and back under heavy bombardment. Throughout the war Frank had kept a diary which survives, along with letters to his future wife Ethel Southall; they married in 1920 after Frank’s service ended in 1919, and had two sons and a daughter. After the war Frank went to work for Pearl Assurance; he died in Exeter, Devon in 1975. [Information and photograph kindly provided by family]