Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

20 Frank Mann and Middlesex: 1912 to 1914 Will you answer your country’s call? Each day is fraught with the gravest possibilities, and, at this very moment the Empire is on the brink of the greatest war in the history of the world. In this crisis your country calls on all her young unmarried men to rally round the flag and enlist in the ranks of her Army. If every patriotic young man answers her call England and her Empire will emerge stronger and more united than ever. If you are unmarried and between 18 and 30 years old, will you answer your country’s call and go to the nearest recruiter − whose address you can get at any post office − and join the Army today? It was a call to arms that many thousands of young men immediately answered and, as soon as the match at Hove against Sussex, in which Frank scored an exciting 52, had ended on 8 August, Frank hurried back home to Norfolk, thus missing the final five matches of the Middlesex season, determined to enlist as soon as possible. The nearest regiment that Frank could find that was actually preparing to cross the English Channel to France, were the 20th Hussars at Colchester, only 40 miles from Diss. They had been ordered to form part of the British Cavalry Division that would cover the gap between the British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army. After being offered a temporary commission as Second Lieutenant, Frank embarked with them on 17 August, eventually being gazetted in the same list as his younger brother Charles, on 8 September.