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Corporal Frank Hay Valette THOMPSON (M/282470)
No. 1 Reserve, Motor Transport Depot, Army Service Corps Date of birth: 6th November 1899 Date of death: 7th February 1917 Died aged 17 Buried at Croydon (Queen's Road) Cemetery Row Grave 6 16818
Frank Hay Valette Thompson was born at Valetta in Malta on the 6th of November 1899 the son of Rear Admiral James M. Thompson RN of Hampstead. He was christened in Devon in 1904. He was educated at Lancing College where he won an Exhibition and was in Sandersons House from September 1913 to Easter 1916. He was appointed as a House Captain. He left school to begin medical training at St Bartholomew's, living at Highgate, but he was desperate to enlist in spite of his age. In September 1916 he was accepted for the Royal Flying Corps but his age was soon discovered and he was discharged. Instead he enlisted at Grove Park into the Motor Transport Section of the Army Service Corps serving with the with the No. 1 Reserve, Motor Transport Depot at Grove Park. He had no desire to be an officer but was persuaded to apply for a transfer to the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. While still with the Army Service Corps he caught a chill and died of double pneumonia a few days later at the War Hospital, Davidson Road, Croydon. He was buried with the full military honours due to an officer.

Sandersons House