Private Frank Smith
187705 8th Battalion Canadian Army
Killed in Action 22nd March 1918, aged 33
Formerly lived on Gannow Lane
Buried in Hersin Communal Cemetery Extension, France - I.A.18.
Burnley Express 3rd April 1918

Son-in-law of Mrs H M Walton of 96 Padiham Road.Married 1 child,emigrated to Canada 1910 and joined the army early 1916 then drafted to England and F&F August 1916 and was killed by a German bomb 22/3/18.

His friend the Chaplain wrote to his wife.

Former Bar-Man Tim Bobbin Inn

"He was married to my grandmothers sister Nancy Walton and they emigrated to Canada in 1911/12
She died in 1912 in Winnipeg where Frank was working as a 'porter' for Canadian Pacific; Frank remarried his second wife was possibly Mary Hannah but we have no further details though there is a story of an RCAF guy looking the family up in WWII
Frank visited family in Burnley when he came back with the Army and left a unit badge with my Aunt Edith who was in her early teens and apparently quite taken with him - the Badge which I now have was for the Winnipeg Rifles
Edith though only a mill worker apparently visited Frank's grave in the late forties which must have been quite an undertaking"

His mother -in-law Mrs HM Walton would have been my Great Grandmother Hannah Walton (nee Stringer) and as such mother of Frank's first wife my Great Aunt Nancy, I assume the wife and child referred to would be his second wife and their child - as far as I know he and Nancy had no children

Could this have been the mystery RCAF man of WWII ????

(Information courtesy of Colin M Crossley)