Bernard Francis was born Lewes on 17 August 1898, the son of a corporation street paver, and is found with his family at 38 Sun Street in 1901 and at 16 Talbot Terrace in 1911. He was himself a corporation labourer when he enlisted in the Royal Navy in September 1915, shortly after his 17th birthday. He served throughout the Great War as a naval gunner on Admiral Beatty’s flagship, the battlecruiser HMS Lion.
He remained in the Royal Navy after the war and was posted to a coastguard station in Ireland. On 14 May 1921 Bernard Francis and another Royal Marine were out walking near their station at Eastferry, Queenstown, when they were kidnapped by the I.R.A., murdered, and their bodies dumped in a quarry. His body was returned to his family home, Mill House, Talbot Terrace, and he was buried with full military honours in St John-sub-Castro churchyard. The 20 May 1921 Sussex Express carried a report of his death, and the following week’s newspaper a report of his funeral.
http://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/marines/francis/francis.htmlSandra
