Frank Stevens was baptised on 3rd July 1892 at All Saints’ Church in Alton, the fourth son of George and Jane Stevens. At that time the family were living in New Town, Alton, where his father was a stationary engine driver. The family then moved to St Nicholas’ Club in Chawton which was part of Jane Austen’s House.

Enlisting in Alton, 2012 Lance Corporal Stevens served with the 1/4th (TF) Battalion originally attached to the 3/4th Hampshire Regiment. He was one of the 1914 Territorials and went off with another Chawton man - Frank Field Fox. The four battalions in the Hampshire Territorial Brigade had assembled for their annual training at Bulford a week before war broke out and so were soon sent out to India and then Mesopotamia.

Frank was at the siege of Kut el Amara when he was taken prisoner. He died of dysentery at Baghdad on 4th June 1916.

He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals. Lance Corporal Frank Stevens was buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery - Plot X. K. 14.

Source: “The Remembered Ones of the Great War”, 2014, The Alton and Villages Local History Forum (with permission)