KERRISON, Frank
| Service Number: | 213 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 19 February 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia, December 1896 |
| Home Town: | Bradshaws Creek, Dorset, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Wounds, 41st Casualty Clearing Station, France, 20 October 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, Nord Pas de Calais, France Plot I, Row O, Grave No. 52 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Pioneer Anglican Church Honor Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 19 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 213, 40th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 1916: | Involvement Private, 213, 40th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Hobart embarkation_ship: HMAT Berrima embarkation_ship_number: A35 public_note: '' | |
| 1 Jul 1916: | Embarked Private, 213, 40th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Berrima, Hobart | |
| 20 Oct 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) | |
| 7 Apr 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 213, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), The Outpost Villages - German Withdrawal to Hindenburg Line, GSW back, legs and hands | |
| 12 Oct 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 213, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), 1st Passchendaele, SW chest DoW 41st Casualty Clearing Station | |
| 20 Oct 1917: | Involvement Private, 213, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 213 awm_unit: 51 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1917-10-20 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From Launceston Historical Society, Tasmania
OUR HISTORY NO. 246
Fate and Pte Frank Kerrison
Frank Kerrison: Tasmanian soldier’s date with destiny
NIGEL BURCH, LAUNCESTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
One of the great pioneering families of northern Tasmania is the Kerrisons, who came from Norfolk in England and settled at Silver Mines (now Winkleigh) on the West Tamar.
Frank Kerrison, born in 1897, represented the fourth generation of the family in Tasmania.
He was slender, but wiry, tough and determined. He also had a date with destiny.
The family were usually farmers or miners. Frank’s father Robert was a miner, following the work from Lefroy to Beaconsfield, where Frank was born, to Gormanston. Around 1905 the family moved to Bradshaw’s Creek (now Pioneer), where there was a big tin mine.
When war broke out in 1914, Frank’s older brother Ernest enlisted almost immediately.
About a year later, Frank decided to join him. He jumped on his motorbike and roared off, heading for the enlistment office at Claremont.
He didn’t make it, coming off the bike in a nasty accident that put his plans on hold for a while.
Frank could have taken the accident as a sign, but he didn’t. The following year he tried again.
This time there would be no motorbike. He decided to take a train. It would be much safer.
Unfortunately, the train he selected was the Hobart express, leaving Launceston on 15 February 1916. It went off the rails at Campania, killing seven in Tasmania’s worst ever rail disaster. A mate sitting next to Frank was killed, and Frank had to identify the body.
Severely shaken, but still determined, he made it to Claremont and enlisted, aged 19. Seeing so much death already, he took the army’s advice and made out a will before leaving Tasmania, leaving his meagre possessions to his mother.
After arrival and orientation in England, in October 1916 Frank joined the 51st battalion in France, a unit made up of the shattered remnants of other formations. There he promptly caught severe tonsillitis and was transferred to hospital in England.
Recovered and still determined to see action, he rejoined his unit. In April 1917 they attacked a fortified village on the Siegfried Line, where he was shot and returned again to England.
After weeks of treatment, the army gave him two weeks furlough to lift his spirits before departure. Unfortunately he promptly caught a venereal disease and wound up in hospital again!
Finally, he made it back to France in September 1917, with his unit preparing to join the third battle of Ypres.
They attacked in October 1917. Only six days later, Frank was again shot.
They evacuated him to a casualty clearing station in Belgium, where he died. He didn’t even make hospital.
It wasn’t practical to bring his remains home, so he is buried in the Godewaersvelde British Cemetery in France. There were no wife or children to mourn, and he was forgotten.
Except for a beautiful poem inserted in The Examiner a year later by his parents and siblings.
Published in The Sunday Examiner, 21 August 2022, page 31.
***
This poem was inserted in The Examiner on 19 October 1918 by his sorrowing father and mother, sisters and brothers, Bradshaw's Creek:
Forth to the battle he hastened,
With many a comrade brave,
Who eager and strong like our loved one,
Now lies in a soldier’s grave.
Far, far from the home of his childhood,
Far o’er the ocean so deep,
In a foreign land our loved one.
Is sleeping his last long sleep.
One of the best – a loving son,
A brother kind and true;
So dearly loved, so sadly missed
By everyone he knew.
He was only a private in battle,
Just a part in the great rank and file;
He fought for its flag and its honour,
And laid down his life with a smile.
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