Frank Staden was born in Cambridge in 1898, my second cousin twice removed. Fifth of the twelve children of Alfred & Catherine (nee Derby), the family moved to the village of Steeple Bumpstead, just over the boundary into Essex, and was there in the 1901 census where Alfred was a tailor. Within a few years the family was back in Cambridge and Frank appears as a twelve-year old in the 1911 census.
In 1915 Frank enlisted, joining the Suffolk Regiment as did so many of the lads from around here. He served in France and was transferred to the Rifle Brigade and died one hundred years ago today, at the age of 19; later in the century this was to become the average age of US casualties in the Vietnam war, but somehow those who flocked to the colours in the Great War seemed to me to be much younger.
Frank has no known grave but is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.
We will remember them.
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