Francis Cyril Hampson was born in West Didsbury on June 4, 1896. His father, Frank Hampson, owned a business that manufactured ladies’ blouses. By 1911, Francis was a pupil at Stockport Municipal Secondary School and living in Stockport with his parents, Frank and Emily Hampson (née Midgley), his older sister Doris, his younger brother, Harry Midgley, his two younger sisters Hilda and Irene, and a domestic servant.
In September 1914 he joined the 6th Battalion Manchester Regiment as a private and 6 months later was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion Manchester Regiment (Territorial Force) on February 18, 1915. He joined the 2/9th Battalion in training at Southport and moved with them to Pease Pottage in June 1915. He was made temporary Lieutenant on August 9, 1915. On October 13, 1915 he embarked for Gallipoli with 10 other Officers, arriving at Mudros on October 24th and joined the Battalion on Cape Helles on October 26, 1915.
He was sent sick to hospital in Alexandria on November 29, 1915 where he remained for 84 days before rejoining the battalion in Egypt on February 21, 1916. He didn’t stay with them long, because on March 14, 1916 he transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and was struck off the strength of the Battalion. He remained with the Machine Gun Corps until the end of the war and was appointed temporary Lieutenant September 1, 1916 and promoted to Lieutenant on July 1, 1917. He was disembodied on February 25, 1919 having returned from France in December 1918.
After the war he transferred to the Territorial Reserve as a Lieutenant on February 5, 1921 and in 1925 married Helen Clarkson. They lived in Stockport, where he became a company director, and in 1931 they had a daughter, Helen Patricia Hampson, followed in 1933 by a son, Francis N. Hampson.
Lieutenant Francis Cyril Hampson died on the Isle of Man on May 7, 1970. He was 73 years old.