Second Lieutenant, Leicestershire Regiment
Born: August 31st 1918
Died: December 10th 1940
Age at Death: 46
School Prefect 1936
Head of House 1936
3rd 15 1936-1937
Frank Duesbury was a local boy. Born on 31 August 1918, he grew up at Burgess Hill, son of Beatrice and Colonel Harry Duesbury, who retired in 1939 as commander of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.
After leaving Brighton College, where he had been Head of School House, Frank was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in his father’s regiment in 1938. The following year he served in Palestine while the Arab Rebellion was in full swing.
In December 1940 his battalion was engaged in the successful assault on Italian forces at Sidi Barani in Egypt, with Frank as a Signal Officer. He was fatally wounded while standing up to apply a bandage to a comrade.
One of his comrades later recollected:
“Frank was a fine young officer, and the excellence of the Signal Platoon, which served us so well, was greatly due to his energy and enthusiasm.”
He is buried in the Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery.