S/6259 Pte Frank Stafford, 2nd Bn, Black Watch

S/6259 Private Frank Stafford of the 2nd Battalion, Black Watch, was killed in action on the 22nd April 1916. He was born in Healey, Lancashire, and enlisted at Atherton, originally joining the Gordon Highlanders. Soldiers Died in The Great War gives his Gordons' number as 3094.

S/6259 for the Black Watch dates to late October or early November 1914 which, by a process of elimination, means that Frank must have joined a service battalion of the Gordon Highlanders in September 1914. 3094 for the Gordons' four Territorial Force battalions post-dates early November 1914.

Frank Stafford arrived overseas in France on the 14th July 1915, later sailing for Mesopotamia. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that he was the son of Joseph Stafford of Nar End Farm, Healey, Rochdale. He is buried in the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission