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241153 1st/5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Frank Hopes was born in 1896 in Raydon, Suffolk, the eldest son of Robert and Jessie Hopes. Frank like his father was a woodman and the family lived at The Woodlands in Raydon.
Frank enlisted in Sudbury and served with the Suffolk Regiment (formerly 3630), he first served in ‘a theatre of war’ in the Balkans on 15 November 1915. His battalion had landed at Suvla Bay in early August and in four months suffered 800 casualties fighting the Turks, disease and the weather. In the autumn heavy rainfall turned the trenches into rivers and men drowned, this was followed by the serious problem of frostbite and men died from the bitter cold north wind and the heavy snow. After the battalion had been evacuated from Gallipoli in the December they were sent to defend the Suez Canal. They would spend the rest of the war in the Middle East fighting the Turks.
In the autumn of 1917 the battalion, which formed part of 153rd Brigade, 54th (East Anglian) Division saw action during the Third Battle of Gaza (31 October – 7 November). This was a decisive victory for the Allies but at a cost of 18,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops killed, missing or wounded. Frank served alongside other Sudbury men including: William Bunn and Frederick Keeble who would lose their lives in this battle.
Frank died of wounds aged 21 on 27 November 1917 and lies buried in Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Frank is also remembered on the Trinity Congregational Church Memorial which was moved to the United Reformed Church, School Street when Trinity closed. The United Reformed Church closed in 2017 and it is proposed that the memorials from both churches will be relocated to the Sudbury Cemetery Chapel.
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