LEACH, Frank Hollis
| Service Number: | WX10052 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 13 December 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Claremont, Western Australia, 30 April 1915 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Farmer, Prospector |
| Died: | Mount Barker, Western Australia, 4 January 1998, aged 82 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Mount Barker Cemetery, Mount Barker, Western Australia Roman Catholic #1296 With wife Cecilia May (d. 1992) |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 13 Dec 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX10052 | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX10052 |
Help us honour Frank Hollis Leach's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
Frank was the eldest son from his father James's third marriage, to his first cousin Mary Isabella HOLLIS in South Australia. James and Mary had six children together. Frank had five half-siblings, two of whom died in infancy.
After leaving school, Frank took up agriculture on his brother Roland's farm. After a couple of years on the farm, he turned to gold prospecting, finding a 64-ounce nugget. This is almost certainly how he got his nickname. His success led to him building a mechanised dry-blower and trailer in the family backyard in Claremont, at age 20 in early 1936, to take up to the goldfields (see https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/85718719).
Frank's father James was born in SA but came to WA in 1889. He was the former Superintendant of the Commonwealth Bank in WA and died in 1939 (read his obituary at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46433872). Frank enlisted the following year.
Frank was a POW on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. He was one of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident. Most of the 41 casualties were from Frank's battalion.