By John D Ellis
Private Francis Owen Gittens was born in Trinidad c.1896. He was the son of Joshua Thomas and Jane Eleanor Gittens of 10 St. Francois Valley, Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
When the First World War started, he was one of many thousands of men from throughout the Empire who travelled to Britain to “do their bit”. Cyril Gittens, one of his brothers (he had eight siblings), suggested that Francis enlisted because serving in the British Army would lead to greater travel opportunities after the war. A clerk by occupation he enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment at Scotland Yard, London on the 23rd of November 1915 and was given the regimental number 3155. He was 5 feet 7 and 1/2” tall and identified as a Roman Catholic. His address on enlistment was 192 Breckswell Road, Camden Street, London.
He undertook basic training with the 24th (Reserve) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, until May 1916 when he was posted to the 16th (Public Schools) Battalion in France. He was declared missing in action, presumed killed, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme (the 1st of July 1916), during the assault on the Hawthorn Redoubt. He has no known grave, and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, France. (Pier and Face 12 D and 13 B).
Following the war, Francis Gittens was posthumously awarded both the British War Medal 1914-1920 and the Victory Medal. Joshua Gittens received a gratuity of just £3 for the loss of his son.
Sources:
TNA WO 363. TNA 372/8. livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk caribbeanrollof honour-ww1-ww2.yolasite.com Trinidad 1919 Year Book. (West India Committee, 1919). Trinidad-1919-Year-Book-extract.pdf (westindiacommittee.org) Soldiers Died in the Great War database © Naval and Military Press Ltd 2010. www.cwgc.org www.findmypast.co.uk