2nd Lieutenant, 6th Battalion Manchester Regiment, attached 18th Battalion.
Killed in action on 12th May 1917, age 20.
Remembered on the Arras Memorial, France.
Unknown relationship to The Tech.
Frank was born on 14th July 1896, the fourth son of William James and Margaret Eleanor Walsh, of Crumpsall and later Prestwich. His father is noted as being headmaster of Cheetham Hill Wesleyan Day School and Thomas Council Schools and Secretary of the North Manchester Golf Club. Frank won a foundation scholarship which he held at North Manchester School where he showed a flair for mathematics and was captain of the football and cricket clubs. A great favourite on the cricket ground near his own home at the age of 13 he bowled out a professional player and his friends carried him back to the pavilion on their shoulders. In 1909 Frank moved to Manchester Grammar School where he was marked out as a leader in games and played for the football and cricket clubs. In the last cricket season he played in he broke the school record for the highest aggregate score. He was a tower of strength in Science Fifth and his name was commemorated in their form room. After school Frank joined Mather and Platt Ltd. with the aim of becoming an engineer.
In 1914 Frank went with the 6th Battalion Manchester Regiment to Egypt. He was wounded in Gallipoli and complained in letters home about being kept in bed and losing his physical strength, an understandable frustration given his sporty nature. He was selected for a commission and trained at Trinity College, Oxford where it is no surprise to know that he represented his unit at football and cricket. He was killed by a shell during an attack at Bullecourt, France in May 1917. His colonel wrote “I desire to let you know how much I appreciated your son’s services. You are probably aware that a little time ago he was considerably shaken in his nerves while on outpost duty. During this time our outpost line was in full view of the enemy, and his post was heavily bombarded, and finally was blown out by a shell. I was afraid he would not be fit again to take part in a fight, but he pulled himself together in a most heroic manner and I consider this one of the bravest things a man can possibly do”.
Frank’s brother Edward Allan Walsh, who served as a Sergeant with the Canadians, was reported missing in April 1915 and later as killed in action. His other brother J.N. Walsh, a 2nd Lieutenant with York and Lancaster regiment was wounded at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli was invalided out of the army shortly after Frank’s death taking up a post as a junior house-master at Christ’s Hospital.