S7581
HICKS, Frank
| Service Number: | 3355 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Stepney, South Australia, 1896 |
| Home Town: | Stepney, Norwood Payneham St Peters, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Cabinetmaker |
| Died: | Unknown, 14 September 1974, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, NSW |
| Memorials: | Norwood Primary School Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 27 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 3355, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 3355, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Benalla, Adelaide | |
| Date unknown: | Wounded 3355, 4th Field Bakery |
Help us honour Frank HICKS's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Saint Ignatius' College
Prior to the war, Frank Hicks lived in Stepney, South Australia. He was a young man, of 19 years of age, when he enlisted, working as a cabinetmaker. During this time, he lived at 10 Union Street, with his mother, Elizabeth Hicks. He was unmarried, and didn’t have any children. Prior to the war, he had also been training in the 19th Junior Cadets for three years, so he would have had a great deal of military training beforehand. He also enlisted at the start of the war, when most of the more physically able people were enlisting. Other than that, there is very little other concrete information on Hicks’ life before the war, but using other sources, we can still infer information about his past.
Hicks enlisted for the war on the 19th of June 1915, and he joined the 10th Infantry Battalion. From there, his battalion moved to Zeitoun, in Egypt, where they trained for a few months with the other British and Australian Forces. In March of 1916, the Australian Imperial Forces split many of the battalions up, so that they could have an even mix of experienced and unexperienced soldiers in each, which would ideally help them to win. This event is known as the doubling of the AIF. It was over this time that he moved to the 50th Iinfantry Battalion. It can be assumed from his information that he was a more experienced soldier from his part military training. When he joined the 50th battalion, he was put into the 4th Field Bakery. This was an interesting development, because based on all the other information known about Hicks, where was nothing to suggest that he would be a baker.
With the 50th battalion, Hicks moved to fight in the Northern parts of the Western front, in Belgium and France. During this time, there was no update on neither his service journal and casualty form, however, the diaries of soldiers indicated that they fought alongside the 10th battalion in Mouqet Farm in France. That was the only battle that Hicks was known to be a part of with the 50th battalion, but it was an important one. This is because over that time, the AIF saw heavy casualties, and many deaths occurred, only when Canadian forces joined were they able to turn the tide. Thus, it would have been a traumatizing battle for Hicks, because the other soldiers in the battalion weren’t strangers, many would have been people from South Australia as well, perhaps even past classmates or friends.
After that, they moved further North towards Ypres in Belgium where he returned to the 10th Battalion, all whilst engaging in activities like sports to keep morale up. From there, they were stationed near the front lines, moving in and out of the trenches. Over this time, they engaged in training and combat, however, due to some accidents, there were a few injuries and deaths due to a bomb training mishap, which would have been a horrifying experience. After this, there was very little information on Hicks, but fighting on the Western Front wouldn’t’ve been easy, and his bravery in fighting is testament to his ANZAC spirit.
In September 1917, the 10th battalion were in Ypres and marching towards the front lines, where the 3rd battle of Ypres would soon begin. At this point, the war had been going on for almost four years, and many soldiers were giving up hope. The conditions around them were also horrible. It was also over this time that Hicks fell ill for days. One of the most important changes that happened over this time was regarding the great change in hygiene for the soldiers. All of them were ordered to have a complete change of clothes, take a bath, and have meticulously clean eating areas, which was a change brought about most likely from a large outbreak of disease or threat of a disease outbreak. It can be assumed, based on the events, that Hicks’ sickness was a result of something that happened over that time, may it have been an outbreak of sickness, from the surrounding area, or trenchfoot, from walking through the muddy trenches.
Hicks was wounded in action on the 1st June 1918 with a gunshot wound to his leg and 2 of his fingers. He was subsequently sent to hospital in England, "invalided". In August he went AWL and he was fined 6 days pay. He returned to his unit until the end of the war and returned to Australia on the 25th March 1919.
After the war he moved to NSW, where he died in September of 1974, and was buried Eastern Suburbs Memorial Cemetery.