Hopkins, Frank, Jr.

Born March 2, 1888, in Syracuse, New York. Son of Frank and Mary Lally Hopkins. Educated Syracuse Central High School and Syracuse University, Class of 1910. Practiced law. Joined American Field Service, August 16, 1917 ; attached Section Sixty-five. Transferred to U. S. Ambulance Service, Section 552. Returned to America, March, 1919. Died of heart disease, June 5, 1919, at General Hospital No. 5, Fort Ontario, New York. Buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Syracuse, New York.

FRANK HOPKINS, JR., was a little older than most of the men in the American Field Service, but in his enthusiasm and eagerness to see action he was almost boyish. On November 20, 1917, he wrote, "At last, at last! Tonight at suppertime came the long-looked for and impatiently awaited 'ordre de mouvement,' and it looks as though we would get to see the front!" But the orders were countermanded, and it was not until some weeks later that his Section was finally on its way to the Chemin des Dames. Frank's letters from the front were extraordinarily restrained, with hardly a reference to the fact of war. He wrote often and at length, but confined himself to telling of the routine of section life and of his personal relations with the other men. There is not a single mention of shelling or of danger of any kind, though Section Sixty-Five saw a great deal of fighting and suffered its share of casualties. Through his correspondence we see him as a man of humor, who saw life clearly and simply, with a healthy matter-of-factness.

In August, 1917, Frank enlisted in the American Field Service, sailing with the Syracuse University Unit, and left Paris with Section Sixty-Five which had just been taken over by the army, and which was at that time stationed at a rest camp.

There is nothing more deadly than a prolonged repos, particularly to one who has never seen the front and is all anxiety lest the war be over before he gets there, but Frank's sense of humor saved him from utter discouragement. On November 22d, after the Section had made a futile move to another rest camp he wrote disappointedly but philosophically, "Anyway we are seeing a little of France---about twenty miles in two months. In December with undampened spirits, though with the added discomfort of the cold to depress him, he wrote, "The business of war seems to have struck a dull season, but I guess there is no danger of the help being laid off."

The Section, however, made up for its long idleness by getting into the midst of the action that marked the following spring and summer. Frank was constitutionally delicate and the exhausting work weakened his powers of resistance to any sickness that might be in the air. Towards the end of September he was evacuated for grippe and wrote from Base Camp --- " I should be able to rejoin the Section soon, as they need every man now. And here I am down here --- sick --- and missing the fun and excitement up there." A year of war had not in the least quenched his enthusiasm.

After a few arduous weeks at Base Camp he managed to get sent to Paris, to the haven of all Field Service men, 21 rue Raynouard, from which he wrote, "Here I am home again, or so it seems to me---the old Field Service headquarters --- the first place that made us feel at home in this foreign land!" He remembered his convalescing there as one of the bright spots of his life in France and often referred to the care he received and the attention with which he was treated. He arrived at the front again in time to take part in the last splendid drive, writing on November 4th that his division had just made "a fine advance of forty kilometers or more."

After the Armistice, Section Sixty-Five followed its French division into Germany as a part of the Army of Occupation until the last days of March, 1919, when it was called back to Base Camp at Ferrières and eventually sent home. On June 5th of the same year Frank died at General Hospital No. 5, Fort Ontario, New York, of valvular disease of the heart. The manner of his death was tragic, but no one who knew him can ever doubt that he met it with the same smiling courage and ready enthusiasm that he had carried across the sea into his other Great Adventure.

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921