Frank Rotherforth (Service No. 4350109) was killed in action on 14 October, 1944 in the vicinity of Overloon. He was a Corporal in the 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was initially buried at Cemetery De Kleffen, Overloon and re-interred on 15 July 1946 in Grave I. B. 7. at the CWGC Cemetery in Overloon. His grave is inscribed “We planned a beautiful future only to end in a dream.”

Frank’s military career

It isn’t known when Frank enlisted with the 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment.
 
In October 1939 the 2nd Battalion embarked for France with the 9th Infantry Brigade attached to the 3rd Infantry Division commanded by Major-General Bernard Montgomery. They remained with the same brigade and division throughout the war. They served with the British Expeditionary Force and managed to return from Dunkirk after the battles of France and Belgium, though many were captured at Poperinge, near Dunkirk on 26 May 1940. They spent the next four years training in various parts of the United Kingdom before taking part in the D-Day landings in June 1944. The battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Welby-Everard was then engaged throughout the Normandy Campaign, taking part in Operation Charnwood, Operation Goodwood, and throughout the rest of the Northwest Europe Campaign until Victory in Europe Day in May 1945.
 
On 9 October 1944 the Battalion found itself in Haps, just south of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and North of Overloon. It was to take part in Operation Aintree in the coming days with the aim of taking Overloon to the south and then Venray before finally eliminating a German bridgehead on the River Maas near Venlo. They were ordered to move south to St Anthonis on 11 October, but this was postponed to the following day due to bad weather. The move was completed on 12 October and they then moved slightly further west the next day, though with one man killed and 3 wounded.
 
On the 14 October, the day on which Frank died, the plan was for B Company to be guided through a wood held by the Royal Ulster Rifles to its front edge from where they would carry out a recce to check if a stream was passable and if the north eastern corner of a wood to the south was held by the enemy. However, the guides were late and the move through the wood was slower than expected, so the recce did not take place. At 7.30am the Company began to advance south out of the wood. However, before the Company had advanced 100yds the enemy opened fire from a track about another 100 yds ahead. The advance continued but came under such heavy fire with so many casualties that the Company Commander issued an order to retreat back to the Royal Ulster Rifles’ position. By this point one Lieutenant and 34 other ranks had been killed or wounded. Following a recce by the Company Commanders, it was decided to launch an attack at 1530 hours with D and A companies in the lead. The enemy had been seen moving in the area of the stream in front of the wood. It was thought that the enemy holding the Battalion objective were probably a Company strong. Immediately the attacking force came into the open they were subjected to intense artillery and mortar fire but they pressed steadily on to reach their objective. During this action the Battalion suffered very heavy casualties including four officers killed and another four wounded. One of the officers who was killed was Major Dawson who was commanding “D” Company
 
A total of 27 men of the 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment who died that day are buried alongside each other at Overloon, including Corporal Frank Rotherfort.

Frank’s marriage

Frank’s wife was Florence May Rotherforth of Sheffield.
 
He had married Florence May Slimm at St Philip, Shalesmoor, Sheffield on 1 January 1938. He was 27 and Florence was 23. His father was given as George Rotherforth, though it was noted that he was deceased. Florence’s father was given as David Slimm.
 
In 1939 Frank and Florence were living at 12 Back Meadow Street, Sheffield. His birth date was given as 13 November 1910 and hers as 15 April 1914. Frank was a Boiler Flue Cleaner at Blackburn Meadows Power Station . Florence was working as a Spoon & Fork Buffer (Rougher).
 
Blackburn Meadows Power Station is located on the River Don between Sheffield and Doncaster. The first power station on the site was coal fired, built in 1921 by the Sheffield Corporation to support the steel industry in the Lower Don Valley. The station was expanded in the 1930s. It operated in conjunction with Neepsend and Kelham Island power stations. It closed in 1980. It was best known for its two cooling towers, which remained standing for nearly thirty years after closure, forming a landmark along the M1 motorway in Sheffield and coming to be known as the Tinsley Towers, after the district of the city in which they were located. They were demolished in 2008. Today,  Blackburn Meadows Power Station is a biomass power station, opened in 2014 on the same site, and has an operating capacity of 30 megawatts.
 
Florence was working in Sheffield’s world famous cutlery making and steel industry. It was this industry that established Sheffield as one of England’s main industrial cities during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It used Sheffield’s unique combination of local iron, coal and water power supplied by the local rivers. Increasing competition from imports has caused a decline since the 1960s. The steel industry now concentrates on more specialist steel-making.
 
Frank and Florence had a child called John D Rotherforth in 1944 in Sheffield. It is thought that he may have married either Patricia A Berrell in 1969 and/or Pamela Nutt in 1977 – both in Sheffield – but it is understood from relatives that he had no children. It is known that he died some years ago – possibly in Huntingdonshire in 1998.
 
Florence May Rotherforth died in 2004 in Sheffield.

Family of Frank

Frank was the son of George and Jane Rotherforth (nee Kirk) of Sheffield. George was born around 1873 and Jane on 12 May 1871, both in Sheffield. They married in 1892 in Sheffield. They appear to have had children as follows, all in Sheffield: Annie Elizabeth 1895, George 1899, Walter 1901, Ernest 1905, Emily 1908, Frank 1910, Florence 1913, Mary 1915. Emily died aged just 3 in 1911.
 
In 1901 they were living at 7, Swinton Street, Brightside, Sheffield. George was a Wire Drawer in the Steel Wire Industry.
 
It seems likely that George and Jane had parted by 1911 as they were not in the same household either in 1911 nor 1921.
 
At the time of the 1911 Census it seems that George was a visitor in the household of William Henry Talbot and his wife Ellen Elizabeth and family at Court 4 House 7 Chatham Street Sheffield. He was still a Wire Drawer. By 1921 he was in the household of his father and mother, William and Martha Rotherforth, at 7, Swinton Street, Sheffield which is where he and Jane had lived in 1901. George was still a Wire Drawer at a Steel Wire Manufacturers. His father was born in 1844 and described as an old age pensioner while his mother was born in 1851. In the household too were two of William and Martha’s grandchildren, Horace and Ivy Scott, born 1911 and 1914 in Sheffield. The 1891 census shows that William had been a Wire Drawer too and that he and his wife had five children at home at that time: George 1873, Anne E 1877, John W 1879, Walter 1883 – all born in Sheffield. George was a labourer at that time. George Rotherforth died in Sheffield in 1931 aged 58. He was buried at Burngreave Cemetery in Sheffield.
 
By 1911 Jane was living at 4/5 Birley Street, Sheffield with all six of her surviving children. She seems to have lived there until at least 1939. It is probably more correctly known as Court 4, House 5. The family of seven were living in just 2 rooms. Jane was working as a Charwoman. Her eldest child, Annie, was working as a “Wrapper Up” in a Jam Factory.
 
Annie married Samuel H Biddles in 1919 in Sheffield. By 1921, Jane was at the same address but was undertaking household duties vs paid work. All her children except Walter were still with her, including her married daughter, Annie Biddles, and her first child, George, who was born in Sheffield in 1920. Annie was working as a charwoman, George (Jnr) was a Wire Grinder at Kayser Ellison & Co., Steel Manufacturers, and Ernest was an Errand Boy at Messrs Taylor, Saw Manufacturers.
 
At least three of Jane’s children married between 1921 and 1939, all in Sheffield: George to Maud Johnson on 22 September 1923, Ernest to Mary Godson Louis on 06 Oct 1934 and Florence to William S Elwis in 1936. All went on to have children. Ernest was a Corporal in the York and Lancaster Regiment at the time of his marriage. Little is known about her other children, Walter and Mary.
 
By 1939 Jane was living on her own, now widowed. She died in 1951 in Sheffield.

Frank’s wife’s family

Frank’s wife, Florence May Slimm, was the daughter of David Simeon Slimm and Victoria Penlaver.
 
David was born in Dudley in the West Midlands in 1888, though a later record gives his date of birth as 2 November 1886.
 
David Simeon Slimm (Service No. 7337) had enlisted with the Army on 28 March 1905 and by 1913 he was a Private in the South Staffordshire Regiment, based in the South Barracks in Gibraltar.
 
It was in the South Barracks Chapel in Gibraltar on 17 February 1913 that he married Victoria Penlaver. Victoria had been born on 19 October 1894 in Gibraltar and was the daughter of Aliandro Penalver who worked for the Port Department in Gibraltar where they were living at the time. At the time of his marriage, David’s father was described as a Pedlar.
 
Both Battalions of the South Staffordshire Regiment were deployed to the Western Front in 1914. The 2nd Battalion remained in that theatre until the end of the First World War. The 1st Battalion moved to Italy in November 1917.
 
David and Victoria had children as follows: Florence May in 1914 in Sheffield and David Simeon on 15 May 1916 in Ecclesall, an area of Sheffield.
 
David was discharged from the Army on 7 November 1917 as a result of wounds. He was an Acting Corporal at the time of his discharge. He received the Silver War Badge 1914-1920 on 16 November 1917.
 
In 1921 David and Victoria were living at 14, Wentworth Street, Sheffield, Ecclesall. David was working as a General Labourer (Handyman) for the Electric Supply Department of Sheffield Corporation. With them were their two children, Florence May and David Simeon and also Ernest Slimm, born 1910 in Dudley and described as a nephew and foster son. Ernest’s father was dead.
 
In 1939 David and Victoria were still at the same address. David was a Charge Hand, Flue Cleaner in Electric Supply. Their son David was still with them and working as a Butcher Salesman. There was a closed record but it is unclear who this was.
 
David Simeon Slimm (Jun) married Beatrice Loxley on 26 December 1939 at St Philip Shalesmoor, Sheffield and went on to have two children.
 
Victoria Slimm died in 1951 while David Simeon Slimm (Snr) died in 1956, both in Sheffield.

From FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Electoral Rolls; Military Records
Lincolnshire Regiment War Diaries via Traces of War Website
Wikipedia – information on the Lincolnshire Regiment
Wikipedia – Blackburn Meadows Power Station
Wikipedia – Sheffield Steel
National Army Museum Website – South Staffordshire Regiment
Photo courtesy of Barry Elwis, Frank’s nephew
 
Research Elaine Gathercole