Frank Miller Bingham was an English doctor, all round sportsman and army officer

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

 who died in World War I. As a cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er, he played for Derbyshire

Derbyshire County Cricket Club

Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...

 in 1896.

Bingham was born in Alfreton

Alfreton

Alfreton is a town and civil parish in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, England, adjoining the Bolsover and North East Derbyshire districts. It was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton Ward was 7,928 at the 2001 Census...

, Derbyshire, the son of Dr Joseph Bingham. He was educated at St Peter's School, York

St Peter's School, York

St Peter's School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school located in the English City of York, with extensive grounds on the banks of the River Ouse...

, and qualified as a doctor at St Thomas's Hospital.

Bingham made one first-class appearance for Derbyshire, against Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 during the 1896 season

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1896

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1896 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for twenty five years. It was their second season in the County Championship and they came seventh.-1896 season:...

. He made seventeen runs, batting in the lower order. He also played rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 for Blackheath F.C. and Middlesex. He was in practice at Alfreton for four years and then went to Lancaster

Lancaster Cricket Club

Lancaster Cricket Club is an English cricket club sited near the River Lune in Lancaster. The club compete in the Northern League, with the 1st team being allocated a named professional for each season...

.

Bingham was an enthusiastic Territorial Army officer. He was first commissioned as a medical officer with the rank of lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

 in the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

 on 24 March 1910, unusually he transferred to 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster)

King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster)

The King's Own Royal Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1680 to 1959. Its lineage is continued today by the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.-History:...

 on 26 November 1910 as a line officer, and so in the First World War served as a combatant rather than as a military doctor. He was promoted captain

Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)

Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...

 in 1914 and commanded a company. He took part in the Second Battle of Ypres

Second Battle of Ypres

The Second Battle of Ypres was the first time Germany used poison gas on a large scale on the Western Front in the First World War and the first time a former colonial force pushed back a major European power on European soil, which occurred in the battle of St...

 in May 1915 and was killed on a reconnaissance mission after stopping to dig a man out of a collapsed trench. He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Menin Gate

Menin Gate

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium dedicated to the commemoration of British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of the First World War and whose graves are unknown...

.

External links

• http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/9590/8406 World War I letter