Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frank enlisted as a single man in the First AIF on January 20, 1915, in Melbourne. He was born on August 10, 1890 at East Melbourne and at the time of enlistment lived at 19 George St, East Melbourne. He listed his profession as Clerk. His father was a GP who previously practised at Shepparton, Victoria. He deserted Frank’s mother the year Frank was born and was never heard from again. Frank’s mother relocated to Perth prior to Frank’s enlistment.
 
Frank was assigned to the 14th Battalion, 5th Reinforcements. On April 17, 1915, he embarked for overseas service on the Hororata. On July 9, 1915, he joined the 14th Battalion on the Gallipoli Peninsula. He died of wounds on or around August 7, 1915
 
Frank was the youngest of three boys. His older brothers were Harry and Jack.
 
My father Frank Davison (1924 – 2006) was Jack’s eldest son and was named after his late Uncle Frank.
 
From a reasonably young age, I was aware that Uncle Frank had died at Gallipoli. Family lore always assumed that Frank was killed at Lone Pine. Indeed, when my Grandfather Jack requested a death certificate from the military authorities in September 1916, he wrote in his letter that Frank was killed at Lonesome Pine. (‘The Trail of The Lonesome Pine’ was a popular song written in 1913 and this resulted in the battle often wrongly named by those at home in Australia). So, it is not surprising that my father and his two younger brothers grew up believing their uncle Frank was killed at Lone Pine.
 
In fact, Frank was not killed at The Battle of Lone Pine. This misunderstanding within the family was probably a result of his death coinciding with the Battle of Lone Pine, and was further entrenched in family lore when Frank was commemorated on The Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing some years after the First World War ended.
 
The Battle of Sari Bair was a key battle in what became known as the August offensive.  The offensive was the final attempt made by the British to seize control of the Gallipoli Peninsula. After many unsuccessful and horrifically costly attempts to turn the tide at Cape Helles – including many Australian soldiers - it was decided to shift the focus to the high ground above Anzac, specifically the Sari Bair ridge which ended at the imposing bluff known as the Sphinx.
 
In support of significant British landings north of Anzac at Suvla Bay, a number of troops at Anzac were directed north towards Chunuk Bair and Hill 971. The force included The New Zealand and Australian Division, a British Division and a few extra infantry brigades. It is sometimes referred to as the North Hook. 
 
The New Zealand Brigade would head for Chunuk Bair, and the remaining forces including the 4th Infantry Brigade under John Monash would head to Hill 971 and Hill Q.
 
To keep the Turkish focus away from the north, diversionary attacks were planned at Lone Pine and The Nek, and also at Krithia Vineyard at Cape Helles. Unfortunately, these costly battles did not restrain the Turks from moving troops to the north.
 
As part of Monash’s 4th Brigade, the 14th Battalion was involved in the push north.
 
Sari Bair was a disaster. Maps were next to useless and the terrain was diabolical.  The New Zealanders had a comparatively simple route to Chunuk Bair, although their awaiting challenges were far from simple. The remaining troops breaking out from Anzac became lost, confused and disorientated, often moving up dead-end valleys or deres. When the assault towards Hill 971 finally took place, the 4 Australian Battalions under Monash were decimated with over 700 casualties. Scrub fires broke out and many troops were burned to death. A lack of water only added to their misery. The 6th Gurkhas somehow managed to occupy the high ground on Hill 971 briefly but were fired upon by ‘friendly’ artillery from the British Navy and from Anzac. The Kiwis heroically kept a foothold on Chunuk Bair but on August 10, Mustafa Kemal counter-attacked and reclaimed the entire Sari Bair ridge.
 
It is therefore not surprising that the details of Frank’s death are very sketchy. A Court of Enquiry at Serapeum in 1916 found that Frank was wounded on August 7, 1915, with a bullet to the knee. After that, it remains unknown what happened to him. For the record he was officially found to have died of wounds on August 7, 1915.
 
The locations of many of the Sari Bair skirmishes and battles were so inaccessible that they were largely left unexplored even by Bean and the War Graves party in 1919. Les Carlyon admitted that given his age at the time, he was not game to tackle much of that terrain when he explored the peninsula conducting research for his magnificent book, Gallipoli. Perhaps one day a detailed book may be written about Sari Bair but in truth, much of the detail would now be lost in the mists of time.
 
My family lore also held that my great-grandmother would not accept that Frank was simply missing and that she travelled to Turkey and the Gallipoli peninsula some years after the war. I have no way of verifying this story.
 
Her eldest son Harry (Henry) returned from the Great War after serving as a Lieutenant in France with WA’s 11thBattalion. It would seem, like many returned soldiers from the Great War, he died too young at 47. (I don’t know the cause of death). He was buried with his mother at Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery. He left a wife and no children.
 
My father understood that his father Jack and his two brothers drew straws to ensure their single mother had one son remaining in Australia. If this story is true then my grandfather Jack was the lucky one. He went on to have three sons. He died in 1961 and is buried with his wife at Cheltenham Cemetery, Melbourne.