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Australia

Born 17th February 1896 at 122 Westgarth Street, Fairfield, he was the 2nd born to Thomas and Lilian.

Apprenticeship conducted Working Men’s College (Melbourne Tech) later RMIT.

Francis was an amazing person at a very young age. He was a very strong swimmer, diver and rower. He was also creative in which he was a good poet and painter. When he was a teenager, on weekends he would walk from Fairfield to Templestowe (15km) on the Saturday morning, attend the Mangan family barn dance in the evening near his family’s farm, and then walk home again on the Sunday morning after Mass. His apprenticeship commenced 20th June 1912 as Felt Hatter with McCrohan and Bardsley Pty Ltd, 26 Heidelberg Road, Fairfield he was 16 years old. A few years later in 1915, Australia being a part of the British Empire, was drawn into World War I over in Europe. The reason Francis enlisted in to the AIF was for adventure.

The following are a few extracts from Francis McCrohan’s WWI war diaries. They start off like any old war diary but as you read through to the later parts it becomes very unique and interesting:

Military Medical Exam 12/7/15

Sworn in 27/7/1915

Infantry Camp at Albert Park, South Melbourne Football Ground 9/8/1915

Transferred to Artillery at Albert Park 29/9/1915

Leave Australia 18/11/1915 on board the SS Wiltshire

Arrive in Egypt 14/12/1915 disembarked at Port Suez

Address: Service No. 6375 Gnr.F. McCrohan, 10 Battery, 4th FA Brigade, 2nd Division AIF.

Intermediate Base Depot, Egypt.

Embarked ship at Alexandria, Egypt 14/3/16

Disembark at Marseille, France 20/3/16

Entrain and arrive at Havre 23/3/16

Leave 29/3/16 for service at the Western Front (Flanders)

March to Thiennes, walk into village of Lynde 30/3/16 Slept in barn of old farmhouse.

31/3/16, Four hour truck ride to Nieppe, then march to Bloegsteut(Belgium) and slept in a snug dugout.

1/4/16 ‘April Fools day’, No entry

2/4/16, Wagon ride to Armentieres of three miles passing ‘Suicide Corner’, Fired 35 rounds, right ear bled, pain awful, ‘Tommies’, don’t like us.

3/4/16 On guard at night with Ptomaine Poisoning. Stand to guns from 12:45am to 2:15am

6/4/16 Hot bath in pits.

7/4/16 Raining, cold and wet

12/4/16 to 15/4/16 Germans bombarding us continually.

17th to 20th April, Raining all day, every day.

21/4/16, Good Friday, Big bombardment, some very close

23rd and 24th Plenty of Aeroplanes

26/4/16 Big German bombardment from 4 pm to 9 pm. Expecting gas attack

27/4/16 Gas attack at 10:30pm. Fire 33 rounds. Awful work on guard that night(2 to 4 am)

28/4/16 Another gas attack expected about 8 pm. Stood to with helmets and gas masks.

30/4/16 Moved back to the Havre lines

2-5/5/16 Shell burst at 5:30am 150 yards away. Bombardment still on day after day. Shells whistling overhead. Aeroplane shell lobbed 20 yards away. Closest shave yet! Splinters coming through the stable roof. Lump of shell misses me by 6 inches.

6/5/16 It was a moonless night - decide to go a little way into no-mans land to see what it was like. I got bushed in darkness and lost direction. Wandered around in darkness, tried to find way back. Fell into enemy trenches. Trenches abandoned. There were decaying corpses all piled up, stench and rats. Shock. Found way back without incident.

7/5/16 Pack up and back to the pits for action at 11pm.

10/5/16 Report sick with fever.

22/5/16 Hostile balloon up in front. Germans discovered our location and ranged with ‘Whizzbongs’. Evacuate in the morning. They open fire again with 8 shells that burst 25 yards away and cover me with earth. We run for our lives. Very narrow escape, leave everything behind. We count 167 shells. We went back at dusk and found all our belongings covered with debris, we moved 500 yards to a new frontier. Very exciting day.

5/7/05 We march on from Armentieres thru to Enguinghem, Craiux-du-bac, Streen-werck, Baillenu, Wolvergham, St.Sylvester, St.Omeo.

12/7/16 Arrive at Amiens at 8am. Then 15 miles to Chaussec, villiage of Puche-villiers about 8 miles from Somme frontline. My first pay came in from Egypt.

30/7/16 Sunday, into lots of action at Somme front in Sauage Valley passing over the trenches under shell fire. Valley full of guns and continual fire. Our men being knocked over like ninepins.

31/7/16 Digging trenches, sandbagging, work back to wagon line, 5 horses and 2 men killed.

1/8/16 We water horses in river Somme and swim with them. Then firing and fortifying our position. Barrage fire all night. Ken Sutherland visits me at pits and gets killed later that night.

2/9/16 Still same position at Battle of Somme. Go up frontline - very interesting but risky, under shell fire all the time. To Pouzieres sunken road. Everywhere ruin and desolation, raining day after day, mud and slush, mobs of prisoners going by, led about 16 or 17, a lot bandaged up and looking very shaky on it.

6/9/16 Move to Doullens at 2am, train at 6am and arrive at Poperinghe about 12noon, about 8 miles behind Ypres. Camp later at Berthem and doze off in stable. Put my head out of the door and lead bullets flying in all directions. Went to bed in hay but much annoyed by rats and water.

9/9/16 Onwards through Reminghelst, Ouderdam(Belgium), Ypres etc, thick fog, weak and sick, rain and cold winds, shells, swept by fire machine gun to the pits half mile from Ypres, bullets flying everywhere and smell of locomotion gas everywhere. Pits fixed a bit with dead rats in pools. Sleep on broken tables to avoid rats.

11/9/16 Warned about gas only 1000 yards away from German trenches. I am on guard at night and machine gun bullets whizzing all around and striking the ground a few feet in front scattering the rat infested place. I had to be wakened up at change of shift and reported.

16/9/16 Get news of leave and same night our side has gas on the left and a raiding party on the right. Not feeling too good, getting influenza. Firing off and on at half minute intervals up to about midnight.

18/9/16 Feel much better, raining, cold and windy all the time. Getting ready to go on leave.

19/9/16 Walk into Ypres to HQ. Told to come back at 7pm for passes. Not a house left in Ypres standing. Scene of desolation and ruin. Came back in evening and kept us waiting till 10pm for passes. Rode back to wagon lines in half hour in blinding rain to an old barn after midnight sleeping on wet floor and up at 4am.

20/9/16 Rode the wagons to Poperinge, still raining and roads 6 inches of water and mud. Train leaves at Hazebrooke at 6:18am, then pass through St.Omer, Calias, to Bouloyne at 2:30pm. Leave by boat at 6pm to Folkstone, England, then London.

21/9/16 On leave went first to Ireland to visit family in Killarney Co Kerry.

29 9/16 Go to London General Hospital and report sick with bad cough and lung trouble. Admitted ward 21. Cousin Stan (McCrohan) came in with me and came back again in the afternoon.

31/10/16 Now out of Hospital, on leave to visit Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

1/4/17 Report with mumps. Go into hospital isolation for 21 days.

24/4/17 Drafted 8am to Lark Hill, Apply as a rough rider fit for ages between 19 and 23. Promoted to corporal.

28/6/17 Had a nasty spill off rearing horse which put his foot on my elbow and walked over me.

1 - 14/7/17 Still at school doing much dare-devil work, wrestling, bare-back, steeplechasing; another spill, horse ran into post and turned turtle, thrown clear and landed on my neck. Hear of deaths of some of my Hypnotic subjects from the Somme

20/7/17 Transferred to no.2 Battery RBAA Lark Hill, as riding instructor, rough riding Corporal, put in charge of stables.

August and September 1917 Still at Lark Hill breaking in horses, rain and mud all the time, fights and aggressive behaviour by ‘Tommies’, whom I am teaching. Stan McCrohan in hospital at Birmingham so get pass for 4 days to be with him.

August – 1917 BIG RIOT

December 1917 – More Hypnotism, more subjects, perform some marvellous experiments, and many incredulous fellows are firmly convinced.

11/12/17 In evening Hypnotism again- becoming notorious and large crowds of fellows flock in to see my performance.

14/12/17 Getting larger audiences, My name is becoming a by-word in the brigade. On everybody’s lips. I work a miracle, getting a man’s voice back.

20/12/17 Give a show in Sergeants mess in evening

21/12/17 Give show before Medical Officers and other Officers. All mystified and get them thinking some.

22/12/17 End of a great show, absolutely famous now. Known all over the camp. All this time is devoted to Hypnotism.

23/12/17 Booked to appear in ANZAC Theatre on Christmas eve

24/12/17 made my professional appearance at ANZAC Theatre in the evening – very successful. Felt as if I’d lived on the stage all my life. Had the whole house in a roar for 45 minutes.

Christmas day Find myself the most famous man in the camp – hear re-marks about me everywhere – Everybody looks at me with awe – In the afternoon get warned of draft.

31/12/17 Now on draft. Go to Southampton

1/1/18 Arrive at La Havre, France

5/1/18 March to station full kit and move off for the line on the West-ern Front, very cold trip.

7/1/18 Motor lorry to Steinwuck

18/1/18 Rejoin 10th Battery at Romerin

21 - 31/1/18 Up at Battery positions in gun detachment. Poiz in valley before Hessinis Ridge. Battle Field. Couple of 5.9 bombers – narrow es-capes. Very narrow escape in motor lorry

1/2/18 Backing off between St. Omer and Bulozke

17/2/18 Sunday my birthday, 22 years old, very depressed.

24/2/18 Pass given to me for 8 days leave in Paris, totally unexpected. Walk to Bolgne, altogether 40km and catch train 1 am for Paris.

Paris: Mostly music, malls, theatres, talking and staying with artists, skating rinks, dancing etc.

10/3/18 Rejoin Battery at Stinz, after wandering around villages.

11/3/18 Move up into original positions at Messines

21/3/18 SUBJECTED TO AN INTENSE GAS BOMBING FOR 4 HOURS. Mustard and Phosgene Gas. Put in a horrible night and could not get away

22/3/18 Get away in SS wagon. Totally blind and in bad pain. Kept at Field Ambulance till 27/3/18 then got to 2nd CCS

31/3/18 Into Ambulance to Hospital up to Calais. Another Ambulance through city to Hospital.

1/4/18 Examination by Doctor. Down to boat and cast off to Dover, Eng-land. Arrive at Dover Hospital at midnight.

31/5/18 Discharge from hospital, leaving for Ireland that same night.

5/6/18 Dublin, Ireland, catch early train for Killorglin. Get on better terms all round – set myself out to get well liked and succeed. Hear numerous views on things in general. Run into all Irish political types. Go to funeral, churches. See graves of my forefathers. There seems a harmonious chord within me… From this time to the end of the month…one of the happiest times of my life. (aged 22yrs old). Finest people on earth. I felt perfectly at home among them and they could not do enough for me. Fill in days with driving, riding, boating, fishing, swimming, cycling, card parties, musical evenings. I create an immense stir by my diving powers from the Railway Bridge, about 50ft high. People came from miles around country-side and wait for hours till I came. Gave special performance for the teads, somersaults, etc, and incidentally drink their whiskey.

29/6/18 Very much attracted by all the pretty girls. Still going to numerous funerals and churches. Aunt Mary and Ellie think the world of me and cry like children when I leave.

30/6/18 Finally my little paradise comes to an end. Get orders of general round-up and I get the oil, very much down in the mouth.

12/7/18 Influenza is raging at this time and I sleep in same room with victims but not affected in least.

August 1918 (desertion) Do not like the look of things and decide to go back to the country-side. Settle down to life in old deserted farmhouse. Live on Murphy’s onions and stale bread and a snared rabbit now and then but have to watch my every movement.

15/8/18 Get very popular with men coming out and I do a bit of horse breaking for them, which gives me undying fame. Meet priests and doctors, dealers and farmers, etc. and become the popular favourite all round, but more or less discontented all the time. Try to keep it down but can sadly swallow as much pride as I am expected to.

After Armistice I had to fight tooth and nail to get away. They tried every means in which they could, in hope of catching me. I had tears in my eyes; I did not know what I was going to do.

20/12/18 Still in Ireland

17/1/19 Return to England: SURRENDER

First experience of being behind bars. Reconciled and do not care much. Taken down to the dungeon and put in cooler 12ft x 12ft with 15 others. No food or blankets. There were two men in cooler doing 15 years for desertion. 5am breakfast of slice of bread and pint of tea. It’s positively alive with vermin and rats. This place is the A.I.F. chamber of horrors, with men demented, bashing each other and dying each night.

3/2/19 Out in the afternoon for hearing of sentence. He tells me calmly I am sentenced to undergo 12 months detention – severe shock. Walk back like one in a dream. The detention will take place at the Salisbury Plains Pound near Stonehenge.

12/2/19 Experimenting with Hypnotism again. This time introduce myself Hypnotically. Just a few minor experiments at first and cause no little wonderment

13/2/19 Gradually work higher and higher till I have the whole of the compound in my power. I am looked at with awe from all sides and my fame spreads far and wide. New arrivals instantly learn of my powers and are filled with amazement

17/2/19 My 23rd birthday. One subject suffering from shell-shock gave me a bad scare and went mad. Receive congrats all round though. In the pound we have jumping and boxing tournament, I easily hold my own with all manners of jumping.

From February to May 1919 – All manners of adventures, sport, bashings, stunts etc.

15/5/19 – Leave for home

1/7/1919 – Sight Kangaroo Island, South Australia

END OF WAR DIARY

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This is the last entry of his war diaries. His discharge certificate is as follows:

Discharge: 9/10/1919 from the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force V/B No. 65021, No. 195179.

Description of Soldier: Age 23 years; Complexion Fresh; Hair Dark; Height 5’8½”; Eyes Grey. Trade – Hatter. Marks or scars – Scar on left thigh; Intended place of residence – 20 Heidelberg Road, Fairfield, Vic. Service abroad 1326 days; Service on completion of engagement 1518 days.