Hanna, Frank Leslie (Frank)
Lieutenant
3rd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, formerly
Army Service Corps (Horse Transport)
Died of disease on Friday 26 July 1918 (aged 24)
Buried:
Knockbreda Cemetery, Co. Down (Grave B. 259)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI) Memorial Plaque
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) War Memorial
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) Book of Remembrance
Dunmurry Presbyterian Church Belfast
Elmwood Presbyterian Church Belfast
Journey of Remembering Belfast Book of Honour
BIOGRAPHY
Frank Leslie Hanna was born on 19 July 1894 at Seacliff Terrace, Bangor and he was the eldest son of Francis and Marion Hanna (nee Hardie) who were married in 1893. Marion Hardie was born in Edinburgh and in 1901 the Hanna family lived at 6 Princetown Road, Bangor.
Francis Hanna Senior was a linen handkerchief manufacturer/agent and he and Marion had three children:
Frank Leslie (born 19 July 1894 at Seacliff Terrace, Bangor)
William Tyrrell (born 15 May 1897 at Elizabeth Terrace, Bangor)
George Douglas (born 8 October 1898 at Elizabeth Terrace, Bangor; died 2 January 1978 in San Diego, USA)
The Hanna family moved to Belfast where they lived in Knockbreda Park and then at Gayfield in Finaghy Park.
After being educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI) Frank Hanna worked as a fancy linens apprentice and lived at 1 Rugby Street, Belfast. In 1912 he joined the Queen’s University Belfast Officers’ Training Corps,
At the outbreak of the Great War Frank Hanna enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers (University and Public Schools Battalion) and five months later he received a commission in the Army Service Corps (Horse Transport). He served with the Army Service Corps (Horse Transport) at the Front until August 1917 and then he was transferred to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
On 26 July 1918, one week after his 24th birthday, Lieutenant Frank Hanna died in the Officers’ Hospital at Holywood from nephritis contracted in January 1918 when on active service. His funeral took place with full military honours and the firing party and band were provided by the Hampshires. The service was conducted jointly by the Rev Davey from Dunmurry and the Rev Morrell from Bangor. Lieutenant Frank Hanna was buried in Knockbreda Cemetery, Co Down.
Lieutenant Frank Hanna is commemorated in Dunmurry and Elmwood Presbyterian Churches Belfast; on the Memorial Plaque in RBAI; in the Belfast Book of Honour (Page 249); on the QUB War Memorial and in the QUB Book of Remembrance (Page 26).
A short time before Frank’s death his brother, William Tyrrell Hanna, was discharged from the army suffering from shell shock; he had been serving as a Despatch Rider.
Frank’s father Francis died on 29 January 1924 in Lisburn Infirmary and his mother Marion died on 17 August 1935 at Kerrykeel, Co. Donegal.