Lives of the First World War

known 1914

It's not obvious why an Motor Engineering Apprentice would enlist in the CSR. Franklin comes from a prosperous middle class household - his father is a restaurateur and the family has two servants living in in 1901 - but there is no obvious connection to any of the usual recruiting areas for the Regiment. However in the 1911 Census Franklin is living in the YMCA in Hornsey and there may be a clue in his fellow boarders. One of them is Charles Thomas Frederick MADELL who is an Examiner in the Exchequer and Audit Department (E&AD) which was a fertile source of CSR recruits. Charles MADELL was in the 1/10 Middlesex (a TF unit) and then exchanged into the Bedfordshire Regiment (along with many other 1/10 men). MADELL does provide a link to the CSR though in that a Percival Arthur Lewis MADELL did serve in the CSR and was killed on the same night as Franklin SMITH. Both MADELLS came from family in Lincolnshire although I have not yet found a direct connection between them. Is it too fanciful to wonder if in the run up to the war Franklin was helped into the CSR - his service record suggests an enlistment date from 1/8/1914 to 1/9/1914 - by a cousin of a friend he had made at the YMCA?

Created by: , Michael40130