Frank Clifford Booth; Corporal Rigger, Royal Air Force.

Frank Booth spent his war years in Salonika as a rigger for the Royal Flying Corps, having completed his training much like these recruits.

Frank Booth served for over forty years as a Special Constable for the 
East Suffolk Police.

Frank Clifford Booth was born on 10th October 1896. At the start of the war, Frank was a carpenter and at eighteen years old, was too young to enlist: ten days short of his nineteenth birthday, he joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Frank then remained in England until November 1916, when he was posted to Salonika as a “rigger” and where he stayed for the duration of the war, returning to England on 11th January 1919.

Once Frank was discharged from the Royal Air Force – as the RFC had become known on 1st April 1918 – he continued in public service by joining the East Suffolk Special Constabulary on 4th October 1919. Frank would remain a special constable for the next forty-two years, retiring on 28th April 1962. In 1922, Frank married Ada Pulford; a year later, their only child was born. In 1939, the family were living at 6 Drybridge Hill, Woodbridge and Frank’s occupation is shown as master blacksmith, a trade that the Booth family had followed through many previous generations. Frank died in 1963.

For his war service, Frank received the British War and Victory Medals. He was also awarded the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal.