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Frank
and Percy Larkinson
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of the war dead that are listed on the cenotaph is that of Frank Larkinson who was killed while serving in France with the British Expeditionary Forces.
He had volunteered at the age of 17 for service with the 8th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment and after basic training at Halton Park near Tring in Hertfordshire and Witley Camp near Godalming in Surrey, he had been sent to the Western Front.
Frank's family lived in Coggles Causeway, Bourne, and in the months before his death he had kept them informed of his activities in a series of letters that have been preserved and can now be seen on display at the Heritage Centre in Baldock's Mill. Soon he was joined by his brother Percy and they swapped each other's letters from home to keep in touch with news from
Bourne.
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Frank was posted missing presumed dead on Sunday 26th September 1915 and his name has been engraved on the Loos Memorial at Pas de Calais where over 1,700 officers and men are buried, most of whom fell in the Battle of Loos.
Percy had also volunteered for military service when he was 17 but was captured by the enemy on his 18th birthday on 17th September 1915 and spent the rest of the war
at a prisoner of war camp in Germany. In frequent messages home, he told his family that he had been well treated and was repatriated after the Armistice although his health suffered as a result of the ordeal.
When Percy was released and returned home, he worked as a carpenter, married
and set up home in Ancaster Road, Bourne. During the Second World War he served with the fire brigade and also became well known as a sportsman, playing both football and cricket for the town. He was also a chorister at the Abbey Church,
introducing his two sons David and John into the choir, and he served for a time representing Dyke village on Bourne Urban District Council.
Percy was also a member of the Royal British Legion, the Labour Party, the
Fire and Police Social Club and the Royal Antideluvian Order of Buffaloes.
His
wife Pat died in 1960 and he died in 1969 at the age of 71, leaving three
sons and two daughters. The various organisations with which he had been
connected, from the district council to the cricket and football clubs,
all sent representatives to his funeral at the Abbey Church when tributes
were paid to one of Bourne's colourful characters.
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