WW1 Soldier’s Family Traced After Plaque Found In School Cupboard

The family of a World War soldier has been tracked down thanks to an appeal on Hfm.

A search was launched after a plaque dedicated to the memory of Gunner Frank Herbert Kirby was found in a cupboard at Kibworth Mead Academy.

Through the power of social media, his great grand-daughter who lives in Devon has got in touch with the school and arrangements are now being made for it to be sent to her.

Gunner Kirby was killed in action in France in 1917, aged 26 and the school has been given more details about him.

The married dad-of-three, who served in the British Army’s Royal Field Artillery unit, was born in West Maitland in New South Wales after his family moved to Australia in the early 1890s.

His parents, who had eight children altogether, spent several years Down Under before returning to the UK to live in Leicester.

Frank married Emma Elizabeth Chapman in 1912 in Leicester and the couple went on to have three children.

It still remains a mystery how the plaque ended up at the school.

The plaque