HEALEY, Ernest Francis
| Service Number: | 98 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 21 August 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 1st Field Company Engineers |
| Born: | Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom, 1885 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Painter and Letterer |
| Died: | Lane Cove, New South Wales, Australia, 9 August 1928, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Privately Cremated Rookwood |
| Memorials: | Belmont Presbyterian Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Sapper, 98, 1st Field Company Engineers | |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Oct 1914: | Involvement Sapper, 98, 1st Field Company Engineers, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Afric embarkation_ship_number: A19 public_note: '' | |
| 18 Oct 1914: | Embarked Sapper, 98, 1st Field Company Engineers, HMAT Afric, Sydney | |
| 25 Apr 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Sapper, 98, 1st Field Company Engineers, ANZAC / Gallipoli, Shot through the spine, crippled and confined to a cot for life. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Ernest Francis Healey known as Frank was 27 years old and married but attested to being single. His wife Daisy Adeline Healey (nee Thompson) had tracked him down during August 1915 and she was later added as his next of kin. He was a ‘painter and letterer’ known today as a signwriter originally from Dudley, Newcastle NSW.
At Gallipoli on the landing, Frank was a casualty of a sniper. He was sniped in the back on the 25 April and the bullet damaged his spinal cord, causing paralysis from the waist down. Frank returned to Australia in September 1915 and was one of the first of what were known at the time as the “Cot Cases”, at the No.4 Australian General Hospital at Randwick.
For the following 13 years Frank was never able to leave an inflatable mattress, and managed to see the Sydney city streets on only two occasions, each time from an ambulance.
On his death the Sydney Morning Herald reported “for 13 years he lay helpless on an air cushion Throughout his terrible ordeal Sapper Healy showed remarkable fortitude and became a familiar figure to thousands of visitors to Randwick Hospital as the occupier for about five years of "Canary Cottage," a tent placed at his disposal near the entrance to the hospital. Later he became an inmate of Graythwajte, and recently had been residing at his home, at Lane Cove, Sydney.”
A motor car, specially built to accommodate his wheeled bed, was delivered to his home at Lane Cove in 1928, but he had not been able to use it, as he developed heart trouble, which caused his death in August 1928. Returned diggers paid tribute to the devoted attention given by Mrs. Healey, the widow, during the long years of her husband's illness. She nursed him night and day.
Of his brothers, 1382 Pte Henry Percival Healey, 16th Bn, died of wounds, 3 May 1915; 3511 Pte Reginald Charles Healey, 54th Bn, was killed in action at Fromelles, 20 July 1916; and 2412 Pte Stephen William Healey, 19th Bn, made his own request to be sent home which was supported by the General Officer Commanding the AIF, William Birdwood. Stephen returned to Australia 21 July 1917.
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