Frank Pickles was the eldest son of Nancy Pickles. Frank was a farmhand at Emmerdale Farm and by the age of fourteen, he was already the size of most of the village men. When Joseph Sugden enlisted in the war, Frank and Joe's wife Maggie Sugden ran the farm themselves. Ava Bainbridge gave Frank a white feather and told him he should have recruited to be in the war, so Frank enlisted in July 1915. Frank was made a private. He was killed in October 1915 and Maggie blamed Ava for his death, starting a fight with her in The Woolpack.