Frank Banner was a Licensed Victualler and Market Gardener in Wickhamford and various entries concerning him appear on the Badsey Society website. This article brings all of that information together and, with other details of his life, makes an interesting biography of the man.
Family Background
Frank Banner was born in early 1881, in Leigh, Worcestershire, just in time to appear in the 1881 Census. His parents were William and Harriet Banner, and four older siblings were recorded on that census. Of interest is that his father appears in the 1851 census, at Lulsley, Martley, Worcs. along with a slightly younger brother, George. The latter married and had a daughter, Edith in 1882. Frank and Edith were first cousins, but they married in Worcester in late 1909.
Censuses of 1901 and 1911
Frank Banner was far from home at the time of this census, in Pretoria Villa, Pontadawe, Brecon, lodging with the Walker family and working as a labourer in a colliery. His birth year was wrongly recorded as 1880, but his place of birth in Leigh, Worcestershire was correct. His connection with the Walker family was that Mrs. Elizabeth Walker and a son, Albert, had been born in Alfrick and Leigh, Worcs. respectively.
For the 1911 census, Frank and Edith Banner were living at 2 Manor Road, Wickhamford. He was 30 years old and she was 29. His occupation was given as a market gardener on his own account. Frank was recorded as having been born in Leigh, Worcestershire and Edith in Alfrick, Worcs.; they had been married two years and had no children.
The Sandys Arms
Frank Banner had become Licensee of the Sandys Arms by 1912, when the public house was still owned by Hannah Pethard, widow of George Pethard, who died in 1911. A report in Berrow’s Worcester Journal of 12th January 1912 told of an assault in the inn, when William Huxley, of Bowers Hill, Badsey had assaulted Frank Banner on Boxing Day, when very drunk.
The Sandys Arms was used as a changing room for Wickhamford Albion football club and they used to play home games in a field, Mill Dean, near Wickhamford Mill. Frank Banner was said to be always smartly dressed and he can be seen, second from left, in the photograph of the team taken in 1919, with a bow tie and elegant boots.
On 20th March 1920, the Evesham Standard reported that George Lees-Milne, of Wickhamford Manor, had resigned his seat on Evesham Rural District Council. Voting took place at the Memorial Hall to elect a successor and Frank Bnaner was one of the candidates and Benjamin Ryle Swift of Longdon Hill was the other. The Returning Officer declare Mr. Banner the winner, with 104 votes to Mr. Swift’s 34 votes. No reports have been found about Frank Banner’s time on the Council.
Military Tribunals
Frank Banner, when aged 36, was called before a Military Tribunal on 11th July 1916, when he was described as a publican and fruit and vegetable dealer. Mr. Geoffrey New appeared on his behalf and a temporary exemption from Military Service was granted until 1st September that year. Unusually, the hearing of his case was held in private. A second hearing was held on 6th August, at the Worcester Appeals Tribunal, and his temporary exemption was extended until 31st October.
War Service
Pte Frank Banner was recruited late in the War, on 26th March 1917, at the age of 36, and was posted firstly to the 13th Devonshire Regiment (No. 61407) on 3rd April. He was quickly transferred to the 3rd Labour Battalion on the 24th of that month and posted to the 627th Agricultural Co. (No. 143106). At recruitment, his occupation was given as a fruit grower (last employer: Wm Masters of Stourport) and a publican and his next of kin was given as his brother, George Thomas Banner, and not his wife, Edith. He served only in the UK, carrying out Regimental and agricultural duties, and his medical record mentions that military service aggravated an existing injury to his left leg. He was discharged on 3rd March 1919.
The reason for him naming his brother as next-of-kin may have been that his marriage to a first cousin was unusual and he did not want this to appear on his record. Or possibly, he thought that if he was sent overseas and died in service his brother should be notified first instead of his wife, to avoid upsetting her.
In 1919, Frank Banner purchased mugs commemorating the end of the Great War, to distribute to Wickhamford schoolchildren.
Birth of a Daughter and the Census of 1921
Edith Banner gave birth to a daughter on 15th December 1918, who was called Joy. When the 1921 Census was held, Banner family were living at The Sandys Arms and Frank was recorded as a Licensed Victualler. Edith assisted at the public house and their daughter was 2 years six months old. The Census form contained a number of errors and although supposedly signed by Frank Banner the signature does not appears to be his. His place of birth was given as “At sea”. The person completing the return seems to have misheard birthplace given as “Leigh”. Edith Banner’s place of birth was entered as “Leigh, Lancashire” instead of Leigh, Worcestershire. A sister staying with them, Ethel Benner, was also given the same incorrect place of birth.
Bankruptcy in 1927
In 1927, Frank Banner appeared in Worcester Bankruptcy Court with liabilities of £1,954 18s 11d and assets of £2 18s. He stated that he started a market gardener’s business in Wickhamford in 1910 with assets of £100 and by 1911 he had £300, whereby he took The Sandys Arms. He had served in the Army from 1917 to 1919 and received a gratuity of £100 to compensate him for loss of his fruit trade whilst his wife worked at the inn. In September 1919 he took on 65 acres of land at Lincombe, near Stourport, at a rent of £200 p.a., having then capital of around £1,000. Up to that point he had done well and continued to prosper until 1924, when he had a shocking season. He made bad debts with fruit dealers amounting to £300 and had to leave the farm in 1926. At that time, he sold his horses and implements, that had cost him £700, for only £80. He offered one horse, which had cost him 90 guineas, for only £2 10s.
The Official Receiver did not accept that selling eight horses in that way would explain his total debts. Frank Banner then admitted that he had known he was insolvent from June 1924 and since then had been borrowing money from money-lenders. He now owed £437 for loans. He was constantly sued by creditors and had disposed of the whole of his estate and waited until a bankruptcy petition was filed against him. After more criticism from the Official Receiver, the examination was closed and he was declared bankrupt. The full report of this case appeared in the Evesham Standard of 16th April 1927.
1939 Register
At the outbreak of the Second World War, a National Register was drawn up and Frank Banner was then living at Southampton Villa, High Street, Cheltenham, employed as a motor driver. Mis-information again appears, as his date of birth was entered as 15 August 1881. This is incorrect as he was recorded on the 1881 census, as 0 years old, when this was taken on 3rd April 1881. Edith and Joy were also recorded, the daughter working as a factory hand in an aircraft works.
Involvement in an accidental death in 1947
The Gloucestershire Echo, of 12th March 1947, gave a report of an accidental death of a Polish Warrant Officer, Boleslaw Otto Uchman, at Southampton Villa, High Street, Cheltenham, the home of Frank Banner. He had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. At the Inquest, Frank Banner, who had rented him a room, admitted that he had put a gas fire in the room, but not installed it. He had fixed a rubber tube to the gas tap to test the fire, but had then removed it. The Coroner asked Banner why, if he had unscrewed the rubber pipe from the tap after testing the fire, he had not taken the tube away, rather than leaving it in the room. Frank Banner said that now he could see that it was dangerous to do so A verdict of ‘Accidental Death’ was recorded.
Later life in Cheltenham
Edith Banner died in 1951 and Frank married Florence Pethard in 1954. She was the daughter of the one-time owners of the Sandys Arms, George and Hannah Pethard. At the 1921 Census, Florence lived with her widowed mother at Coronation Villa, next to the inn and worked for Frank Banner at the Sandys Arms. In 1939, she was living with the Banner family in Cheltenham and working as a barmaid. She is pictured right, as a young girl, in about 1905.
Frank Banner died in Cheltenham in 1956 and Florence died in 1967, aged 76. Joy Banner died, unmarried, in early 2003.
Tom Locke, October 2025