War Diaries Talk

Men in trouble

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    This is an interesting page. Lots of information packed into it. Most intriguing is the fact that Capt. Frankenberg is under arrest (second line) with no explanation given. In the last entry a man of the battalion has shot a civilian, also with no explanation given. Accident? Altercation? Self-defense Hmm...

    I searched for information about Capt. Frankenberg, but all I could find was that he came from a British Army family; his father was a sergeant. He also began proceedings to change his name from Reginald Hastings Frankenberg to Reginald Hastings Hastings not long after the date of this diary (May 1917) on 1 August, 1917. http://www.reubique.com/Hastings.htm He seems to have been a cad, abandoning his wife and 6-year-old son.

    ETA: The next page of the diary states that the man involved in the shooting of the French civilian, who died on Whitsunday, was a Pte. Kenny, who was identified by the wife and daughter "of the murdered man." Also that "Scenes of emotion on the part of the French people followed."

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    I wondered if the shooting had been linked to the practice attacks they were making at the time - perhaps a civilian had got too close and been suspected of being a spy - but it seems not.

    As for Capt. Frankenberg's arrest, I assume it can't have stuck as the very detailed biography you uncovered of him would surely have mentioned it.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    No, I think once the term murder entered the picture--as it did on the page following this one--any hint of accident or fault on the part of the civilian goes out the window.

    Capt. Frankenberg DID change his surname within a few months. That could be related to the arrest, or the cause for it. I have finished this diary now, and he was not mentioned again.

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