Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private
Frederick GRAY
29 - 11 - 1894 – 8 - 3 - 1917

Frederick GRAY was born 29th November 1894 in WILMINGTON the son of Mark & Janet GRAY who lived at WILMINGTON. All the children schooled at Spring Creek just south east of WILMINGTON on the Mt Remarkable road. He was one of six sons, three of whom enlisted for WW1.

Frederick moved away and worked as a Farmer on a property near BROOKTON W.A. before enlisting. His family had moved to LITTLEHAMPTON. He attested (formally enlisting in the AIF) on 9th March 1916 ( 4 days before his brother Mark attested in S.A.) at BLACKBOY HILL W.A.

He left for the Claremont training camp immediately. He was described as a single man, 5’6 “tall, weighed 127 pounds and had a 35½” chest. He had brown hair, a fair complexion and light blue eyes. Frederick’s right patella was noted as having a previous injury but he was declared fit for service. Frederick completed camp training and embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A28 Miltiades on 7 August 1916 to join the 28th Battalion.

On 4th December 1916 Frederick was admitted to hospital in France with mumps. He was released and rejoined his Battalion on the 29th December 1916.
The 28th Battalion had been badly hit in the battle at Pozieres between 28 July and 6 August 1916. They were given “a spell in a quieter sector of the front” in Belgium, introducing Frederick and the other reinforcements to trench and gas warfare.

The 28th returned to the south in October, where the Battalion took part in confused and costly fighting to the east of Flers, in the Somme Valley.

Frederick and the 28th were engaged against the Germans that had withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line. It was at this time that Frederick fell ill. On the 21st February 1917, Frederick was admitted to the Casualty Clearing Station with influenza and moved to the Camp Reception Station for better treatment but deteriorated.

On the 26th February, 1917, Frederick was moved to the Number 10 General Hospital at Rouen, France with Pleurisy. Pleurisy is the inflammation of the pleurae around the lung, which impairs their lubricating function and causes pain when breathing. It was caused by Frederick’s pneumonia which was diagnosed on the 28th February.

In agony, Frederick continued to deteriorate. An urgent telegram from the Army advising Fredericks parents in Australia that he was gravely ill was received on 11th of March 1916.

Unfortunately he had died around dawn on the 8th March, one day off of a year since he had enlisted.
A few days later Frederick’s parents learned he was dead. He had been buried the same day at the St SEVERS cemetery extension.

The GRAYs were devastated. Fredericks brother, Pte William Gray enlisted from Perth in the 16th Batt and embarked for Egypt in November 1915. He was hospitalised for 6 months with pleuro pneumonia before returning to Australia for discharge, medically unfit, on 29 September 1916.

His oldest brother, L/Cpl Mark Gray, 32nd Battalion, was killed in action by shrapnel on the 28th October 1916 as he and his men were involved in fierce fighting in “Scabbard Trench”. He was listed as having been found with a severely fractured skull and is remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
Mark Snr later received Frederick and Mark’s British War Medals, Victory Medals, Memorial Scrolls and Plaques along with copies of the ‘Kings Message’.

Frederick was not added to the Wilmington Honour Roll as he enlisted & is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour and on the Brookton District War Memorial – W. A., But is remembered here alongside his brother Mark, as Wilmington was their home town.

LEST WE FORGET