Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Known in the family as "Jack" was born in Brixton in 1887. His father was a tailor's cutter who became a mariner and moved to Australia in the early 1900s with two of his four sons. 

Jack remained in the UK but after 1911 he moved to Australia with his mother and remaining brother due to his father absconding and moving to California via Honolulu. He became a chauffeur mechanic and eventually, all four brothers lived with their mother in Bondi, Sydney. 

Jack enlisted with his brother Richard in Sydney on the 9th August 1915. Thery were originally drfated into the 18th Reinforcement Battalion at Sydney Barracks.

Tel El Kebir 14th February joined 3rd Battn. from 18th

3/3 1916 Richard ignored an order of his superiors.

Alexandria left on 22 march for the Western Front.

Marseilles 28th March 1916

12/4/1916 - refusal to obey a direct order from a superior. 12 days Field Punishment No. 2. The 3rd Battalion war diary states that "the Battalion paraded at 0815 and went off in different companies to route march in full dress order. The afternoon was spent in lectures in billets due to heavy rain." Field punishment No. 2 is where a soldier would be handcuffed/restrained in some way for about an hour each day.

Both went into the Frontline for the first time on the 3rd May 1916 in a quieter sector of the front called the "Rue Du Bois" near Neuve Chapelle. On the 15th May the Trenches were inspected by General Birdwood.

Richard Francis was wounded in the left arm on the 22nd of July. This happened after 2200hrs as the 3rd Battalion moved up the line to the assembly trenches before the town of Pozieres. The war diary states that 3 other ranks were injured and one was sent to hospital, this is almost certainly Richard. His brother Jack remained to go over the top the next morning. According to his service records, Richard was hit by shrapnel above the elbow of his left arm.

He evacuated to England and a hospital in Chichester then Weymouth before being sent back to Australia on 13th November 1916. On the 2nd mAY 1917, he was discharged from the AIF. During his time in the army 1p of his 4p a week pay was going to his Aunt Anna who was still living in London. He eventually ended up at the French Forest Settlement for returned soldiers north of Sydney in 1920.

Meanwhile, in the assembly trenches in front of the French town of Pozieres. Jack and the rest of the 3rd Battalion AIF the same unit to storm Lone Pine at Gallipoli the year before prepared to go over the top.

The attack was an enormous success and the Battalion was able to take all of its objectives including the Windmill, Gibraltar Bunker, and the 2nd German Line without difficulty - due in part to an enemy exhausted by 3 weeks of relentless fighting. The 3rd Battalion took the position and endured heavy German shelling for the next three days withdrawing from the front line on the 26th July. They left behind 91 men from the ranks killed with 43 missings, Jack being among them.

Elizabeth Monks Herford was hit particularly hard by the death of her eldest son Jack. In a letter to the Australian War office from a returned soldiers settlement in "French's Forest" where she was caring for her son Richard she said that "the shock I will never get over. I am staying here for about another month or 6 weeks as I have been very ill. I fear I will never be any better". She passed away in 1920 and although she was able to get her son's catholic medallion back, she never found out what had happened to him or where he was.

The day after he was killed, on the 24th of July his brother George, who was a teacher, enlisted in the AIF but was then discharged due to the ill health of his mother and his severely wounded brother, Francis. He applied for land under the Returned Soldiers Settlement Act.

Richard Francis married Catherine and went on to die at the age of 85, she died in 1986. His older brother George married Elsie Petith in 1917 after he was discharged, he died in Marrickville at the age of 74. The youngest brother, Henry who didn't enlist married Margaret Kinghorn then died in 1958, he is buried in Frenches Forest Cemetery.