Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frank was born in a small village named Dacre in Cumberland in the UK in 1891. His father William was a railway platelayer at the time but eventually William became the Innkeeper at the Crown Hotel in nearby Penruddock. The family also had a farm which employed some labourers and in his teen years, Frank worked as a bailiff on this farm. 

Wanderlust must have struck because just prior to his 22nd birthday Frank boarded the P & O ship Benalla and sailed to Sydney on 17 April 1913. 

He ended up living in Mt Pleasant in southern NSW when the call came to join up for the war effort. Frank had an adventurous character and was nothing if not stubborn and sure of his actions, so signing up to help would not be out of character.

Frank enlisted at Goulburn and sailed off with his digger mates to Egypt. On 19 June he was on board the ship Royal George heading for Marseilles and sent up to the Western Front ready for the Fromelles campaign in July where Frank was first wounded in action. 

After his recovery at the Boulogne Casualty Clearing Station he was sent back and joined the 14th Machine Gunners to rejoin the fighting. On 28 July 1918 Frank was again wounded in action being shot through the right hip and buttock. The injuries were such that he was transported to the Reading War Hospital where he stayed for a few months.

Just before being returned to his unit Frank went AWOL for 4 days. Did he perhaps take the opportunity to visit his family who he had not seen since sailing to Australia in 1913? Always an opportunist, he may have taken that chance to see family before being sent back to the front as he may not get that chance again.

After the War Frank settled back to life as a civilian initially in Redfern near Sydney with family friends from the UK. Then mysteriously he meets an English Rose, Maud Norhteast who had also sailed from England to Australia to start a new life. 

Prior to coming back to Australia after WWI Frank spent some time at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire and records show that Maud also spent some time there, so did they meet and a romance bloom that meant Maud would leave her home to join Frank in Australia?

However they met, they built a life together in Dorrigo NSW on a farm but Frank's injuries made such a physical life very difficult for him and after a few years, they sold up and settled for a while in Fairy Meadow (near Frank's old stamping ground of Mt Pleasant) and then moved on to a dairy farm in Liverpool NSW.

This meant Frank was up before dawn milking cows and delivering milk around the local area by horse and cart. Frank and Maud had 3 children together plus Maud had a daughter from a previous relationship in the UK and all of the kids helped out on the farm.

Sadly in 1929 Maud died prematurely leaving Frank to bring up 4 children. He did end up meeting a woman who shared his life for the next thirty years and they eventualy moved up to Sawtell on the NSW coast to retire.

Frank never spoke about the War - it was something this generation never did. He rarely mentioned his wounds but they continued to plague him into his twilight years. He was a quiet giant of a man who kept his thoughts to himself. One of his loves was walking up to the local shop in Sawtell, buying his morning paper and spending time with his mates chatting and sitting in the sunshine.

Frank passed away on 18 October 1968 in the Repatriation Hospital in Concord NSW.