Bristol Rovers and the First World War
Over the course of the next four days we will publish the biographies of the eight footballers with Bristol Rovers connections who are known to have lost their lives in the First World War.
On the fifth day, 11th November, we will publish a poem written by Eric Whitlock. All articles are part of a Bristol Rovers Heritage Society project
WILLIAM WALTER FRANKHAM
b OND 1881 Keynsham
d 20.11.1917 Croisilles, France
Career: Oldland; 5.4.01 Bristol Rovers (professional, 12.11.01); 1903 Bristol East (professional, 29.6.04).
A goalkeeper who played in the 5-0 FA Cup victory over Weymouth in November 1901, Bill Frankham played for Bristol East in 1903/04, including a 3-1 victory over Rovers reserves in October 1903, and was in the Fulham census of 1911, having been in Keynsham in previous census returns.
He is known to have played in goal for Rovers’ reserves during the 1901/02 season, having made two appearances in the Western League in April 1901. Indeed, he was called up as an amateur trialist for the game with Bristol City, as he had conceded only nine goals all season up to that point with Oldland in the Bristol and District League.
The son of Frederick John Frankham (1845-1915) and Annie York (1849-1917), he married in Bedminster in 1906 to Ethel Jane Hayward, the daughter of George Yates, and had a son, Leslie William Frankham (1906-60). Bill Frankham was killed at Croisilles in the cauldron of World War One.
WILLIAM WEBBER GERRISH
b 26.8.1888 Redfield, Bristol
d 8.8.1916 Guillemont, France
Début: 21.4.06 v Fulham
Career: Eastville Board School; Freemantle; 1.5.05 Bristol Rovers; 14.4.09 Aston Villa (£200) [55,17]; 25.5.12 Preston North End (£250) [3,0]; 30.11.12 Chesterfield Town.
Pam and Ken Linge’s 2015 book “Missing but not Forgotten” and Alexandra Churchill’s 2016 offering “Somme: 141 Days, 141 Lives” both feature chapters on the life of Billy Gerrish, who lost his life in the theatre of war.
The dashing forward, a Bristol boy, had left Rovers to win a League championship medal with Aston Villa in 1909/10, for whom he scored a hat trick against Chelsea in Division One in September 1909 and two goals as Manchester United were thumped 7-1 at Villa Park in February 1910. Unable to retain his place in the side the following season, his career took him to Preston and Chesterfield, where he suffered a broken leg, before enlisting as F/936 in the Footballers’ Battalion, the 17th Middlesex Regiment.
The former England international Frank Buckley (1882-1964), who coached the Footballers’ Battalion team, described Gerrish as “a splendid soldier, most willing and brave”. In February 1915, when in military hospital, he had heard another patient was dying through blood loss and offered to have some of his blood pumped into the patient “who was ever after grateful for the extension of his own life by about a year”, as his former Rovers teammate Peter Roney wrote from the trenches.
Sent to The Somme on 17th November 1915, he survived Delville Wood, but was shot in the legs on the morning of 8th June 1916. He was last seen, casually smoking a cigarette whilst waiting in vain for stretcher-bearers; his body was never recovered or identified.
One of 52 soldiers in his regiment killed that morning, Gerrish is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on Pier and Face 12d/13b.
Prior to this sad end, he had broken into Rovers’ side at the age of 21, establishing himself in the side and becoming a lynchpin during the 1908/09 season, when his two goals set up a 4-1 victory over a very strong Southampton side. These were but two of 11 goals in 49 Southern League appearances for the Eastville side; he is said to have once smashed a shot into the Eastville net so hard that it broke through the back and careered out onto the main road.
Five feet nine inches in height and weighing 13 stone, he later represented Chesterfield in eight Midland League games without scoring, as his club finished second in the table, and broke his leg in a reserve fixture, a 6-0 victory over Grimsby Town reserves in December 1912. The extended Gerrish family lived for many years on the corner of Whitehall Road and Gordon Road, in a house demolished in 1925, and nearby Gerrish Avenue bears their name; Billy Gerrish was one of 12 children born at Bethesda Villas, Redfield to furniture manufacturer Wesley Charles Gerrish (1848-1916) and Annie Florence Webber (1854-1940), latterly of 664 Stapleton Road, who had married in 1878, and he fathered a son called Horace (1911-39).
One brother Howard Gerrish (1885-1969) was on Rovers’ books during the 1904/05 Southern League championship season but, unable to break into the side, moved away and was reported to be at 6 Cardiff Road, Glanllyn, Taffs Well in 1953. Some sources include a middle name Walter, but this appears to have been a transcription error by a wartime clerk.