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Frank Creaser was born in the third quarter of 1897 and his birth was registered in Malton. It would seem that he was the illegitimate son of Sarah Jane Creaser as we find them in 1901 living with her parents, Enos and Sarah Creaser at Rillington.


1901 Census – resident at Union Place, Rillington.
CREASER, Enos, Head, Married, M, 41, Ordinary Agricultural Labourer, Rillington Yorkshire,
CREASER, Sarah, Wife, Married, F, 43, Malton Norton Yorkshire
CREASER, Sarah Jane, Daughter, Single, F, 21, Malton Norton Yorkshire
CREASER, Alice, Daughter, Single, F, 8, Rillington Yorkshire
CREASER, Frank, Grand Son, Single, M, 3, Rillington Yorkshire


By 1911 Frank had left home to earn his living, working as a page boy for Mr and Mrs Maxwell at Grange Garth, Wintringham.


1911 Census – resident at Grange Garth Wintringham.
MAXWELL, George Archibald, Head, Married, M, 29, Game Farmer, Aigburton Liverpool Lancashire.
MAXWELL, Evelyn Elizabeth Catherine, Wife, Married, F, 26, North Grimstone Yorkshire.
LITCHFIELD, Pattie, Servant, Single, F, 30, Cook Domestic, Belper Derbyshire.
SHAW, Florence Maud, Servant, Single, F, 25, House Parlourmaid Domestic, Pocklington Yorks.
CREASER, Frank, Servant, Single, M, 13, Page Domestic, Rillington Yorks.


 Frank enlisted in the Army Service Corps and after training, probably at this point learning to drive, he served as a driver for “F” Siege Park attached to 266 Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery who were using 6.6 inch howitzers on the Western Front. The ASC,sometimes known as Ally Sloper's Cavalry were the unsung heroes of the British army in the Great War - Soldiers cannot fight without food, equipment and ammunition. In the Great War, the vast majority of this tonnage, supplying a vast army on many fronts, was supplied from Britain. Using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and were one of the great strengths of organisation by which the war was won.


The ASC MT Companies were attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery as Ammunition Columns / Siege Parks:  from about 1916 the heavy guns and howitzers of the RGA, with attendant equipment and ammunition, needed motorised transport to haul them (Prior to that horse power was used). The MT (Motorised Transport) Companies called Siege Parks operated dumps, or stores, of the larger calibres of artillery shells which required special mechanical handling equipment.


Frank had returned to England from Flanders by the time of his death in 13th October 1918 – probably he had been wounded,  as it was at Fort Pitts Military Hospital in Chatham that he died, according to a notice placed in the Malton Messenger by his grandparents.  He was buried in Old Malton Cemetery. Sadly, his Medal Roll card shows a request by the army to dispose of his medals in 1921 – presumably his family were not traced, though his grandfather Enos was certainly still around, dying in the Malton area in the third quarter of September 1933. His mother Sarah Jane had married in 1901 to Thomas MacNicholls and died in 1910.  Two of their three children died as infants and the youngest John seems to have been placed in a Boys’ Home in Knaresborough by 1911.


Frank Creaser