Frank J. Dunleavy

Submitted by: Ellen Kazimer {Granddaughter}

 

Frank J. Dunleavy was born around 1889. Frank Dunleavy served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1919.

Story of Service

 

My grandfather, Frank J. Dunleavy, was drafted in April of 1918. He was 29, and by the time he arrived at the front, the war was over. French soldiers informed him, but he didn’t believe it until he reported to the front.

Frank Dunleavy worked in the Central Records Office in Bourges, France compiling the service records of every soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces. For six months there were 6000 soldiers and five to six hundred women from Great Britain’s auxiliary army corps working in the records office.

My grandfather sent an amusing letter to his family detailing a week of leave touring the Rivera on seven dollars. He slept on the baggage rack of the train, went to a dance where he said the French danced fairly good, toured museums, and watched Charlie Chaplin at the movies.

When he died in 1945, the bugler from his company in WWI and his lifelong friend, Bartlett Cottle, played Taps.