Introduction
Frank Reynolds served in the Royal Navy from 1901 to 1926. After his retirement, he returned to his native village of Hardington Mandeville but was later recalled to service in 1938 and 1940.
Childhood
Frank was born on 13 March 1886 at Hardington Mandeville, the fourth of eight children of Arthur Reynolds and his wife Susanna Wildern (née Smith).[1] His father was an assistant overseer of the poor and an agent for Prudential Assurance. The family initially lived at Ivy Cottage, Coker Hill before later moving to the High Street and then to Bolshay.[2] By March 1901, Frank was working for his father on the family smallholding.
Naval career 1901-1913
Frank enlisted in the Royal Navy on 29 August 1901 at the age of fifteen.[3] After serving as a Boy Second Class and a Boy First Class, he signed on for twelve years on 13 March 1904. At that time, he was five feet four inches tall with light brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion. He served first as an ordinary seaman, then an able-bodied seaman, and was promoted to leading seaman in March 1909.
Marriage
While serving in the navy, Frank began courting Mabel Vivian Harvey, his second cousin. Born and brought up in Long Sutton, where her father worked as a blacksmith in his own forge, Mabel had become a teacher at St Benedict’s School, Glastonbury, boarding with an aunt at Station House, West Pennard.[4] Frank and Mabel married on 10 September 1913 at Holy Trinity Church, Long Sutton. Although a newspaper report stated that Frank was a Chief Seaman on HMS Caesar, his service records show he was in fact a Leading Seaman on HMS Vivid II at that time.
Mabel was given away by her father and Frank’s brother, Walter, acted as the best man, while his mother signed the marriage register as a witness. Mabel wore a silver-grey Russian silk dress trimmed with Maltese lace, along with a tagel hat adorned with white ostrich feathers. The wedding was followed by a reception at the home of Mabel’s parents, after which the newlyweds left by motor car for Taunton, en route for their honeymoon destination of Torpoint near Plymouth.
Their married life got off to a good start with a windfall prize. According to the newspaper report of the wedding, the couple had won a £500 prize in a Tit Bits “Heads and Tails” competition a little earlier. Tit Bits was a weekly magazine and “Heads and Tails” was a word-association puzzle. The £500 prize was substantial enough to purchase a modest house. After their marriage, Mabel lived with her parents and became a teacher at Long Sutton.
Naval career 1914-1926
Frank continued with his naval career, although his progress was not entirely straightforward. In August 1911, he was demoted from Leading Seaman to Able Seaman for misconduct, but regained his former rating in May 1912. He had passed the educational examination for Petty Officer in September 1910 and the professional qualification in February 1912, and was eventually promoted to Petty Officer on 12 February 1914.
When the war broke out, he was serving on HMS Goliath. Frank was included in the Roll of Honour for Hardington in January 1915 and for Long Sutton in March 1915.[5] He later served on Hyacinth, Vivid I, Highflyer, Ambrose and Warspite. In March 1916, he extended his term of engagement until completion, and by September 1920, he advanced to Chief Petty Officer.
The 1921 census recorded him as a Chief Petty Officer and diver aboard HMS Ambrose, a submarine depot ship stationed at Wei Hai Wei, China. Throughout his career, his character was consistently assessed as very good. He left the Navy on 12 March 1926.
Retirement at Hardington
Mabel appears to have remained at Long Sutton while Frank completed his naval service. In June 1924, she was elected honorary secretary of the Long Sutton, Long Load and District Nursing Association, suggesting that she was still living there.[6] However, by December 1926, when she attended her sister’s wedding as the bride’s companion, a local newspaper referred to her as Mrs F. Reynolds of Hardington Mandeville, suggesting she had joined Frank at Bolshay following his retirement.[7] Frank’s mother and sister Rose left Bolshay and moved to a cottage in Rectory Lane.
During his retirement, Frank served as correspondent to the school managers from at least 1931 to 1936.[8] In December 1935, both he and Mabel attended the funeral of Walter Oxenbury of White Vine Farm at Hardington Church.[9]
Recall to naval service
During the Munich Crisis from September to October 1938, Frank was briefly recalled to the Navy. He was also recalled during the Second World War, serving on Drake I from 13 June 1940 to 30 June 1940, and then on Raleigh from 1 July 1940 to 14 May 1945.
Later life
The 1939 Register recorded Frank and Mabel living at Bolshay with a thirty-one-year-old evacuee from London named Violet Rosaline Viney. At that time, Frank was a Royal Navy pensioner, a palm-and-needle worker in canvas, and an ARP warden. Palm-and-needle work involves sewing heavy canvas by hand using a sailmaker’s palm to force the needle through the material, a skill he may well have acquired during his naval career. Mabel was a school teacher, which suggests she may have taught at Hardington School.
In 1940, Frank’s mother died at the age of eighty-four.
In 1949, Mabel co-produced and acted in a play that Hardington and Pendomer’s Women’s Institute entered in the Somerset Drama Festival. The play was poorly received by the judges, who noted various faults, including actors forgetting their lines. [10]
On 21 May 1952, Frank made a will, leaving everything to Mabel.[11] By then, he was suffering from high blood pressure and an enlarged prostate, but the immediate cause of his death was a coronary thrombosis.[12] He died at Bolshay on 1 June 1952, at the age of sixty-six, leaving an estate valued at £4,158 2s 2d.[13] Sidney Walter White of Rectory Lane, the husband of his niece Daisy, was present at the end and registered his death.
After his death, Mabel continued to reside at Bolshay. On 14 February 1962, Mabel made her will, leaving £100 to the rector and churchwardens of Hardington Church, £20 to a relative named David Seels, with the remainder to be divided among four relatives and fourteen other people, including Sidney Walter White.[14] Towards the end of her life, she returned to Long Sutton to live with her sister and died there on 1 April 1970 at the age of eighty-five. Her estate was valued at £5,551 6s 0d.
Conclusion
After twenty-five years in the Royal Navy, during which he served as a diver, Frank returned to his native Hardington. His retirement was interrupted by two recalls to naval service, and he was nearly fifty-nine before his long association with the Navy finally came to an end.
References
[1] Civil registration birth index; Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939; 1939 Register; family reconstitution.
[2] Hardington voters’ lists and guardian valuations.
[3] Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939 (no. 216754).
[4] Central Somerset Gazette, 19 September 1913, p.4.
[5] Western Chronicle, 5 February 1915, p.6; 19 March 1915, p.6.
[6] Langport & Somerton Herald, 21 June 1924, p.5.
[7] Langport & Somerton, 25 December 1926, p.5.
[8] Taunton Courier, 16 September 1931, p.7; Western Gazette, 29 May 1936, p. 9.
[9] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 25 December 1935, p.8.
[10] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 12 March 1949, p. 6.
[11] The will of Frank Reynolds, dated 21 May 1952, proved at Bristol on 17 December 1952.
[12] Death certificate of Frank Reynolds.
[13] National probate calendar.
[14] The will of Mabel Vivian Reynolds, dated 14 February 1962, proved at Bristol on 22 May 1970.
