Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frederick Golden HOWES was born on 30th September, 1863 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

His parents were William HOWES & Elizabeth ELLIOTT

Frederick Golden Howes also had a brother in the Royal Navy, Z/299 Able Body Seaman Wilfred Golden Howes, of the Nelson Battalion, R.N.V.R. Wilfred died of wounds at 5.30am in the 15th General Hospital Alexandria, on the 8th May 1915. He had suffered severe gunshot wounds to the upper extremities on or about the 1st May 1915, at Gallipoli. He is buried in the Chatby War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.

Frederick Golden Howes was a Scotsman who enlisted into the 3rd Battalion of the Australian Naval Military Expeditionary Force during November 1914. He was a widower with 6 sons and 2 daughters, and gave his age as 40 years and 2 months, and had served for 15 years in the R.N.V.R at Aberdeen Scotland. Howes died of malaria and cardiac arrest not long after arriving in Papua New Guinea. He was buried in the Old German Cemetery, at Madang which in 1914 was the mainland centre for the German Lutheran Church and its missionaries, the German New Guinea Company and a haven for malaria and other then untreatable tropical diseases. All the other identifiable graves in this cemetery are German except the one of Private Howes, Service Number 148 – 3 Bn, Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force. A brass Commonwealth War Graves plaque is bolted to the cement plinth. Frederick Howes was actually 51 years of age at time of his death and had left 3 younger sons aged 15, 13 and 10 under the care of his brother, the boys’ uncle Arthur Howes, who was to also lose his son, Albert Amos Howes, killed in 1916.

Frederick Golden Howes had two older sons that were original Anzacs, both being severely wounded at the Landing in 1915. 1201 George Anderson Howes left Australia in December 1914 with the 4th Battalion AIF and was wounded in the foot during the Landing on Anzac Cove. After being evacuated to Egypt he was returned home to Australia in November 1915. 540 Private Henry Yorston Howes was an original member of D Company 1st Battalion who enlisted in August 1914, age 20 years 1 month. At the Anzac Landing he had his right foot shattered by a bullet and was evacuated to England on the 2nd May 1915. He transferred to the 14th Light Trench Mortar Battery in July 1916 and was wounded again in May 1917, with several shrapnel wounds to his face, arm and leg. He was evacuated again to England and returned to France in February 1918. He was wounded in action for a third time in April, this time by gas, which caused burns and blistering of his feet. After several months in hospital, he was returned to his unit and was given permission to return to Australia in October 1918, on special Anzac Leave.           

The 15-year-old son mentioned above made his way to Melbourne in 1916 and enlisted under the name of Donald Mackie McKenzie, gave his age as 18 years 1 month, and embarked Australia in March 1916 with the 22nd Battalion AIF. His real name was Albert Amies Howes and he was in fact only 16 years of age.  He used his married sister’s husbands name when he enlisted. During 1916, he transferred to the 57th Battalion and was wounded in action 23rd November 1916, with gunshot wounds to the thigh, right arm and both legs, diagnosed as severe, and evacuated to England. He was discharged from hospital in February 1917 and spent most of the rest of the war with various training units in England. He married in Aberdeen Scotland July 1918, to a 17-year-old Williamina Bowden, while he was AWL. He admitted to the authorities that he had changed his name, and was returned to Australia in November 1919.