Frank Edward Clarkson was born at Follifoot in 1897, one of four children born to Charles and Isabella Clarkson. At the time of the 1911 Census, 13-year-old Frank was living with his parents and siblings in Pannal.
Frank was under-age when he volunteered for army service on 31st August or 1st September 1914, possibly alongside Ernest Burnley and Arthur Weatherhead, and was posted to the 1/5th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. He was aged only seventeen when the battalion moved to France, disembarking at Boulogne on 15th April 1915.
On 9th October 1917, the battalion took part in the Battle of Poelcappelle, one of many actions that belonged to the campaign known as the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). The battalion went into action with 20 officers and 642 other ranks, advancing at 5.20am behind a creeping artillery barrage across the Stroombeek, a stream lying within a swamp that extended over 200 yards. The battalion gradually lost the protection of the barrage owing to the difficulty in moving through the swamp, and soon came under enemy machine-gun and sniper fire. Despite the immensity of the task, the battalion managed to take the nearer of its two objectives by 6.40am. Shortly after moving on past the first objective, the battalion was stopped by machine guns firing from pillboxes on the higher ground ahead. Attempts to rush the pillboxes came to nothing. The battalion reported casualties for the day of 4 officers and 48 other ranks killed, 8 officers and 182 other ranks wounded, and 2 officers and 56 other ranks missing.
Among those missing in action on 9th October was 20-year-old Frank Edward Clarkson. Letters from Frank's officer and the battalion's chaplain reached his parents at Thirkhill View, Pannal a month after the battle, and told how Frank had been seen making his way to the dressing station having been wounded in the arm when he was again wounded, this time in the leg. His body was eventually recovered from the battlefield at trench map reference D.10.a.30.30 and reburied in Tyne Cot Cemetery; the inscription on his headstone, chosen by his parents, reads WORTHY OF EVERLASTING REMEMBRANCE.
[Note: trench map coordinates can be located on a modern map using the excellent tmapper resource.]