Frank, it seems, was everyone's favourite uncle. He was born in 1911 in Hampshire. As a child at Pond Hall he had a horrific accident; climbing on a corner cupboard (so the story goes) he dislodged a skewer and was blinded in one eye.
He was, consequently, not fit for military duties in the war. He "took the gold-medal for his year at Chadacre Agricultural Institute, one of the first Agricultural Colleges which taught agriculture on a scientific basis, and was soon appointed as estate manager by Lord Iveagh and it was while working for him that he met and married Dorothy Hudson" (Philip).
According to Wikipedia, this Lord Iveagh was "Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh KG CB CMG VD ADC FRS, (29 March 1874 – 14 September 1967), who was an Anglo-Irish businessman, politician and philanthropist. He was a keen agriculturist, who transformed the barren shooting estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a productive farm. In 1927 several of the most able students came from the Chadacre Agricultural Institute, to assist in the transformation of the Elveden Estate and help him with his revolutionary ideas. The brightest was a 21-year-old Victor Harrison, who arrived in 1933. Chadacre finally closed in 1989, but the Trust continues to this day, chaired by the present Lord Iveagh. Its income is used to support agricultural research work".
The small photo shows Mick and Frank playing chess. On the reverse of the photo newly discovered spidery handwriting in ink tells us: "Very good and rather a new snap. You can see that Mick's shoes need mending and you can about see the fleas on Sandra". The date would be about 1940.
Frank married Dorothy Hudson in 1940. They are pictured, below, at Easter 1944.
"He was my mother's favourite brother; he always looked out for her when she came home from school or was out with my father", (Jill) "apparently he tried to cut the corner at the notorious bend near Pond Hall, and crashed into the back of a bus". Philip expands: "His crash on his motorbike as I understood it was when he was returning to Pond Hall to help out when Grandpa had shingles and couldn't cope with the chickens". That was the motorbike accident in which he died in 1947; he and Dorothy had no children.
