George Frank was born in Oswestry on 7 June 1895 and was baptized at Holy Trinity Church the next month. He was brought up in Crumpwell, Maesbury where his father, George, was a horse breaker and dealer. His mother, Sarah Elizabeth was originally from Sussex. He was the eldest of six children with siblings: Dorothy, John, Alice, Gladys and Francis. George attended Maesbury School and then Welshpool County School. The family later moved to Park Avenue.

George began an apprenticeship as an engineer, working for his uncle with whom he was living at Holdford House Perry Barr, Handsworth Staffs in 1911. Later in that year, in October, the family emigrated to Australia aboard the steamship ‘Orsova’ bound for Sydney. They lived in New South Wales where his father continued as a horse dealer and breeder. George had joined the 11 Light Horse in 1913 – a local militia and part time soldiers – but enlisted in 1 Bn Australian Light Horse on 24 August 1914 at Rosebury Park, NSW. At the time of his enlistment he was living at Mount Horeb, Adelong, NSW giving his occupation as a farmer and horse breeder – he seems to have given up on engineering and followed his father into farming. The battalion sailed for England via Egypt on 20 October 1914 on the ship HMAT Star of Victoria – however, at Egypt the ‘ANZACs’ were diverted to the Gallipoli campaign.

He died of wounds on 10 June 1915. He had been wounded on 30 May. The battalion were at Monash Gully, one of the draws that led up from the beach at Anzac Cove. George was in a dug out when he was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet. He was evacuated but his condition was serious. The bullet had perforated his intestines and he soon had peritonitis. He arrived at Alexandria General Hospital in a coma and a prognosis of ‘condition as to recovery quite hopeless’. On 9 June he was operated on and his condition improved slightly but he died two days later on 11 June 1914. A postmortem revealed that his gut had been pierced in seven places and his condition would have been hopeless from the start.

He was buried in Alexandria Military Cemetery. His headstone reads ‘In memory of the dearly beloved son of Mr & Mrs GH Frank’.  His father and mother wrote a number of letters to the Australian War Office asking for more details of their son’s death. They had heard that George had suffered for 20 days (it had been reported in the newspaper that George had been wounded on 22 May, rather than the correct date of 30 May) and had died whilst being operated on. The army authorities investigated and found that this was not so and that everything possible was done for him but his wound too bad. His father wrote again on 30 October 1915. He had still not had official notification of his son’s death which he needed to sort out the legal and financial affairs. George is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial and at St Oswald’s Church, Oswestry, where he had been a chorister. 

Acknowledgements: Photo Sydney Mail Archives

References and Sources

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