Francis Joseph Hicking
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Francis Joseph Hicking was born in 1897 and baptised in St Peter’s Church, Nottingham, on 21 October of that year. He was the youngest son of wine merchant Joseph William Hicking and Kate Florence Hicking, nee Cleaver, then living in Lenton Road in Nottingham’s Park Estate. Joseph William had been born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, Kate in Nottingham; they had married in 1887 in Nottingham. They were to have six children: Harold Yeldersley (b. 1889), Frieda Mary (b. 1890), Nora Florence (b. 1892), George Graham (b. 1893), Francis Joseph (b. 1897), and Grace Joan (b. 1906). The 1911 census shows the family living at Manor Park, Ruddington; father Joseph (50) is now a retired wine merchant living with wife Kate (also 50), sons Harold (22, a lace manufacturer), George Graham (17, articled clerk), daughters Frieda, Nora and Grace. Absent from the house is Francis, a boarder at Bramcote School, Filey Road, Scarborough.
Francis Joseph Hicking was killed in action with 10th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. He is buried in Fricourt New Military Cemetery Grave Reference: C4.
His brother Twenty two year-old Lieutenant George Graham Hicking was killed in action with 6th Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment on the same day 1st July 1916. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.Nottingham Evening Post 12th July 1916:“LIEUT. G. G. HICKING. “Lieut. George Graham Hicking, who was killed in action in France on July 1st, was the second son of Mr. J. W. and Mrs. Hicking, of Gerrards Cross, Bucks., and late of Ruddington, Notts. He was in his 23rd year, and was educated at Broadgate School, Nottingham, and Uppingham. When war was declared he was fruit farming in Canada, and immediately returned to England and joined the Public Schools Corps, and received his commission two months later. In September, 1915, he was sent out to the Dardanelles, and several months later invalided home with dysentery. His younger brother, Second-Lieut. Francis Joseph Hicking, was killed in France on the same day.” Above article courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918The eldest of the 3 Hicking brothers, Harold, left the lace trade in Nottingham to take up fruit growing in Canada, but he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 to fight in France. There he was awarded the Military Cross and was twice Mentioned in Dispatches. He left the service with the rank of Major and returned to England.Research by Alan Bates and Peter Gillings
