This man is a candidate for addition to Keighley's Supplementary Volume under the proposal to add further names in 2024, the centenary of the original roll of honour.
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Supported by the National Lottery's Heritage Fund, our project intends to submit about 120 names for peer review to add them to the book which is kept at Keighley Library. The unveiling of the book with it's new names is planned for November 2024, 100 years after the unveiling of the original war memorial.

Private, 9th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Service number 13689.

Early life:

His parents were John William Chapman and Emma Elizabeth Chapman née Hobson. They were married at St. Matthias Church, Burley, in Leeds on 14th Jun 1883.
Frank was born on 5th May 1889 and his birth was registered in Keighley. He was baptised on the 29th May at
St. Andrew's Church. They were living at 81, Wellington Street in Keighley.
He was one year old in the 1891 census now he was living at 67, Leeds Street with his parents and five siblings: Lilly, aged 9, Harry age 7, Mabel age 6, Maria age 4 and John J. aged just 2 months. Their father John was employed as a general labourer.
There is a prison record for a John William Chapman of Keighley in which he served 14 days at Leeds Prison for non-payment of his gas bill. We cannot be sure he is the same man as Frank's father, although his age of 37 in November 1892 is very close to his age of 35 in the April 1891 census.
By the time of the 1901 census, something seems to have happened to break the family apart. Father John William is nowhere to be seen (he may have died,) mother Emma is running a lodging house with daughter Lily Hobson at 8, Hollis Street in Leeds, whereas Frank and his brother Joseph (John J.) were boarding at Blackburn's Yard on Church Street in Whitby and they were 12 and 10 years of age. It's possible they were there on a short term visit.

Emma appears to have remarried in the third quarter of 1904, to Frederick Arthur Godley in Leeds. He was a milk dealer. They were living at 18, Darnborough Street near Harrogate Road in Leeds.
In the 1911 census, Frank was living with them aged 22 and was employed as a general labourer and his older brother Harry was also there aged 27 and working as a general labourer. A 9 year old daughter Doris Godley appears to be the daughter of Frederick and Emma.

War service:

Frank enlisted at Leeds in the early part of the war. According to a calculation from his soldier's effects record, this would have been around August or September 1914. There is no Army service record available for him, but we can piece together some of his service from other records.
He served with the 9th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and his service number was 13689. They were mobilised on 10th September 1915 at Witley Camp in Surrey and the battalion travelled to Southampton by train, where they embarked on S.S. St. Seiriol and sailed from Folkestone on 11th September 1915. They entered France shortly after midnight, on 12th September 1915. Frank went with them and this is confirmed by the date of his entry into theatre indicated on his 1914-15 Star medal record.

Frank was present when the battalion took part on the assault on the 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. From 7.30 am on the 1st July to 6 pm on the 3rd, the battalion was involved in the attack on German lines after a sustained bombardment by our artillery. Several waves of the battalion attacked and eventually took the German front line in the area from the Sausage Valley to Crucifix Corner. They had to reverse the German trench to face the other way and allow it to be defended. This was not easy due to the terrible state of it after the bombardment, but they held on to it. The casualties for the battalion were 15 officers killed and 7 wounded, 145 other ranks killed, 475 wounded. Frank was one of these wounded men.He would have been transferred down the evacuation chain, ending up in hospital at Boulogne, where he died of his wounds on 8th July 1916. He was buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, plot VIII, row C, grave 113, indicating that he died of his wounds at one of the war hospitals in Boulogne Sur-Mer. He was 24 years old and the family information recordes that he was the son of Frank Chapman and Emma Elizabeth Chapman (née Godley) a native of Keighley. This is confusing because Emma's maiden name was Hobson and her name after she remarried was Godley.
The family inscription requested by Emma for her son was: "We Shall Meet. But How We Miss Him. He Answered His Country's Call." Her address at the time was given as 46, Bingley Street, Kirkstall Road, Leeds.

Post war:

Frank was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service in the war. His mother Emma would almost certainly have received these along with any personal effects and a memorial plaque and King's certificate.
On 6th May 1919 his remaining Army pay, which came to £2 15s and 6d was issued to the family and unusually this was split between his mother Emma receiving 8 shillings and 3 pence and each of Frank's siblings Harry, Lily (Hall), Mabel (Schofield), Maria (Humphreys) and half sister Dorothy, receiving 8 shillings and 2 pence.
On 8th November 1919, a later war gratuity payment of £8 and 10 shillings was also split reasonably equally with everyone receiving £1 4s 4d or £1 4s 3d, apart from Frank's brother John who received the larger sum of £1 12s 6. This may have been to make up for the difference as he'd been missed off the earlier list.

An Army Pension Card indicates that Frank's mother Emma applied for a dependant's pension (documents were received from Army paymaster on 8th January 1917) but there is no indication she actually received anything. At the time her address was 33, Fleet Street, Stepney Lane, Hull.

In the 1921 census Frederick and Emma Godley were aged 52 and 53 and were living at 46, Bingley Street in Leeds with their daughter Doris May aged 19. Frederick was an out porter for the Midland Railway but on his own account. Emma was on home duties and Doris was a tailoress machinist for the Premier Company on Park Lane in Leeds.

Frank is of course remembered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, on his gravestone at Boulogne.

Information sources:

England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935
1891 England Census
West Yorkshire, England, Prison Records, 1801-1914
1901 England Census
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
1911 England Census
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
Gro War Death Army Other Ranks (1914 To 1921)
1921 Census Of England & Wales