Francis Bowen Beardsall
Workd at Gregory's Quarries, Mansfield. Had been in the army for 12 years with the Leicestershire Regiment and was captain of the Regimental hockey team.
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Son of Francis and Lilian Beardsall, of 113 Carter lane, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Siblings: Stanley (1912-14), Annie (1916), Margaret (1920) and twins Arthur & Albert (1927).
Francis snr served with the West Yorkshire Regiment in WW1.
Mansfield Chronicle Advertiser: 13/8/1942: Mansfield Man Persumed Killed.
Fifteen months after receiving notification that their son Pte Francis Bowen Beardsall was missing, Mr & Mrs Beardsall have received official intimation that he is now persumed killed in action at sea in May last year.
Pte Beardsall, who at one time worked at Messrs Gregory's Quarries, Mansfield had put in 12 years service with the Leicestershire Regiment. Before the war he was in India and since then he has seen service in the Middle East. A keen sportsman, he was captain of the Regimental Hockey team.
Francis was killed during the evacuation of Crete. The Germans had invaded Crete in April 1941 and made substantial advances. The 2nd Bn of the Leicestershire Regiment were sent from Alexandria, Egypt to Heraklion, landing on the night of 15/16th May from HMS Gloucester and HMS Fiji, to reinforce the beleaguered Allied forces.
On the 27th May the order was given to evacuate the island has the Allied forces could no-longer hold back the German forces.
Between 28th May and 1st June the Allied forces were evacuated from the south coast of Crete back to Alexandria. However they came under sustained bombardment from Luftwaffe dive bombers and several ships were sunk. Out of 32,000 British troops ony 18,600 were successfully evacuated back to Egypt.
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