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War Memorial
Australia

Frederick Albury was born in Redhill, Surrey, England in 1896 and migrated to Western Australia with his family before World War One started. The 1911 UK Census lists Frederick as a pony driver – a skill he was to put to good use in his role as a driver of wagons filled with ammunition on the battlefields of France during the War. No doubt young Frederick had little idea that his skills with ponies and his experience working with his father as a carting contractor would stand him in good stead as a soldier.

Frederick was working as a farmer in Western Australia when he enlisted at Blackboy Hill on 13 September 1915 at the age of 19. His unit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia on board HMAT A2 Geelong on 18 November 1915 and sailed for Egypt.

From Alexandria, Frederick and the 5th Divisional Ammunition Column joined the British Expeditionary Forces in Marseilles in June 2016. Frederick’s service record lists him as a ‘driver’ but he was a driver of carts and wagons, not of trucks, putting his childhood training to good use.

Sections of Frederick’s diaries have been transcribed by volunteers at the State Library of South Australia (www.slsa.sa.gov.au). His diary indicates that he was responsible for a cart and the mules that pulled it, delivering ammunition to the trenches. In October 1917, he describes giving both of his mules ‘a good cleaning’ when the rain clears and elsewhere he records that one of his horses is pregnant.

Like many soldiers, Frederick suffered from pleurisy, influenza and chest infections. He was admitted to the 36th Casualty Clearing Station on 29 November 1916 before being transferred by ambulance train to the 6th General Hospital in Rouen. He was so ill that he didn’t rejoin his unit until 3 January 1917.

Frederick was able to spend a short period of leave in England in July 1917. He describes his arrival back at Ypres after leaving England:

‘Arrived back from England on the 26/7/1917. Reached the Section on the 28/7/17 @ Brandhook on the Ypres front. It’s about the hottest line we have been in yet. Went out in the afternoon for swim. Fritz came over in the night with bombs and killed 1 man & wounded another. These were our first casualties.’

In January 1918, he spent a short time in a temporary posting with the 18th Company, Australian Army Service Corps before rejoining his unit on 21 January 1918.

Although Frederick was not wounded in France, he did receive serious lacerations to his hand and damage to his fibula. After being admitted to the 14th Australian Field Ambulance, he was transferred firstly to 3rd Canadian Hospital and then sent by hospital train to 1st Canadian General Hospital. His hand was treated, and he was then put on light duties. In his diary, he records that he had five baths to clean, which meant about an hour of work each day.

Frederick also recorded an attack on the hospital that resulted in 51 deaths and 38 of the day staff being wounded. Sadly, he writes, two nursing sisters were killed, and one died of wounds; he proudly acknowledges that despite three hours of bombing in the darkness, not one nursing sister left her post. Further deaths were recorded in subsequent raids.

Eventually, Frederick was transferred to Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham, Kent, where he enjoyed visits from volunteers who brought him cigarettes. He also took the opportunity, while in England, to visit his relatives and to do a bit of sightseeing, recording that ‘fine food is not so scarce in London as elsewhere’. He enjoyed going to the pictures, visiting a circus and taking long walks in the fresh air. His diary entries while in England give some hint of his post-war career choice as he describes going to a Bible class, attending church services and visiting an interesting Plymouth Brethren church.

In July 1918, Frederick reported to No 1 Command Depot but Frederick’s ill health was not over. On 27 October 1918, he was admitted to Group Clearing Hospital with influenza.

Frederick marched into No 1 Command Depot from hospital on 4 November 1918 and returned to Australia on board HT Orsova on 8 January 1919. He disembarked in Fremantle on 11 February 1919 and was eventually discharged on 26 April 1919.

Records suggest that Frederick married his sweetheart Eulie Florence (Florrie) on 30 October 1920 at Victoria Park Methodist Church in Western Australia while he was working for the Western Australian Railways. In his war diary, Frederick writes joyously about receiving mail from Australia, stating that he ‘had some bonza letters from Florrie & they do a chap good when he knows they come from such a bonza girl who loves him’.

Frederick and his wife returned to South Australia in the mid-1920s where he became a Methodist Minister. Reverend Frederick Albury and his wife, Eulie Florence, worked all over South Australia, serving the Methodist (and later Uniting) Church for many years. Frederick can be found in the SA Government Gazette living in Lucindale in 1927, while the 1949 electoral roll shows the family at Broken Hill.

Frederick also served in World War Two in the 6 Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps, enlisting in 1944. He attained the rank of Sergeant.

Frederick died in Moonta, South Australia, on 24 February 1982 and is buried there with Eulie.

Papers of the Reverend Frederick Albury comprising diaries and notebooks relating to his ministry and family life, records relating to his service in both world wars and many of his personal papers can be found in the State Library of South Australia.