Frank Dudley Evans, born on 3rd August 1897, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1909, having previously attended Handsworth Grammar School. Frank lived with his father, Alfred, a secretary of the Birmingham Exchange, his mother, Charlotte, and his younger brother, William, at ‘Fair Lea’, Castle Bromwich.
At School, Frank was an avid member of the Officer Training Corps and also a classicist, winning the Latin and English Prize in July 1914 and coming second in his class overall.
Frank was gazetted with a commission straight from the School Officer Training Corps as a Second Lieutenant in the 4th Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was later attached to the Royal Flying Corps, qualifying as a pilot on the Maurice Farman Biplane on 27th April 1916, at the Military School, Thetford. He was killed in a flying accident on 9th June 1916, aged eighteen, while working towards his Wings. A report in the Birmingham Weekly Post states that: “the engine of the machine he was flying failed to develop full speed, and fell nose-downward to earth”. A verdict of accidental death was returned by the inquest. At his funeral, his body was carried to Castle Bromwich on a transport wagon by officers and men of the RFC, who acted as bearers. Frank’s coffin was covered by a Union Jack, and bore a large floral cross sent by his old comrades. Among the congregation was a uniformed detachment of the Castle Bromwich Red Cross Nurses, of which his mother was an officer.