Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

His son 4171 Private Frederick Clive Collins, 11th Battalion, was also killed in action at Pozieres on the 25 July, 1916. Born in Witley England 10 June 1900 he was barely 16 years of age. He was the son of Lewis Frank and Annie Collins, living at Victoria Park, Western Australia. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial in France.

Frederick enlisted in September 1915, and left Australia in January 1916, with the 11th Battalion. He joined the battalion in France, on the 25 May, 1916 and went missing at Pozieres on the 25 July 1916. He was not confirmed as being killed in action until May 1918 and also has no known grave. He was actually listed as absent without leave for a considerable period, for months after his death, which probably caused the delay in confirming his death.

The father, 4785 Pte. Lewis Frank Collins, 48th Battalion, AIF, died in Fremantle on the 26th January, 1918.

Frank Lewis had arrived in Fremantle from England during 1913. He was accompanied by his wife Annie and their five children, the youngest being only 3 years old. Lewis enlisted in November 1915, and left Australia from Fremantle with the 15th reinforcements of the 16th Battalion in April 1916. He joined the 48th Battalion in France on the 12 August 1916, and was in action only for several weeks. He was most severely wounded on the 31 August 1916, suffering horrific bomb wounds to his right leg which was amputated at the knee joint, then on 1 September 1916 amputated again further up the thigh after it went septic. The second amputation took place in England in December 1916. His right arm was also badly fractured, smashing the humerus bone, and shredding much of the muscle on his arm. He was returned to Australia 1 November 1917, and died in the 3rd Australian General Hospital, when he collapsed under anesthetic, undergoing another operation. The date of death was 26 January, 1918 and he was buried in Fremantle Cemetery, being just over 40 years old.

A second son, 3870 Driver Frank Collins also served with the 16th Battalion and returned to Australia in June 1919.

Lewis Frank Collins was born in August 1877 at Alton, Hampshire UK.  He and his wife Annie lived in Witley, Surrey, UK and had 4 children.  In May 1913 Lewis came out to Australia by himself and arrived in Fremantle WA where he found work as a railway fettler.  He found a home for the family to live in so Annie and the 4 children joined him in October 1913…Frank 15, Freddie 14, Cyril 6 and Muriel 2.  However, for whatever reason, by 1915 Annie and the 2 youngest children had returned to England while Lewis remained in Fremantle with Frank and Freddie.  By August 1915 Frank was working as a station hand near Geraldton and Freddie was working as a farm hand near Moora, 250kms south of Geraldton.  In September 1915 they both did something that would change the direction of their lives forever. 

Freddie sent a telegram from the post office at Moora to his mother in England which contained 3 words…“Can I enlist?”.  Her reply was even shorter…”Yes.”  Freddie made his way to Perth and enlisted at Blackboy Hill Army Camp on 11th September 1915 aged 15 but because he was under age to enlist, he gave his age as 18.  Frank enlisted at the recruiting office in Geraldton on 8th September 1915 aged 16 but gave his age as 21.  He then made his way to Blackboy Hill Camp to join Freddie.  They were assigned to different units…Frank with the 16th Battalion 12th Reinforcements and Freddie with the 11th Battalion 13th Reinforcements.  With his 2 sons having enlisted and the rest of his family back in England, Lewis enlisted on 9.11.1915 at Perth aged 39.  He was assigned to Frank’s battalion, the 16th but to the 15th Reinforcements.  The paths of all 3 would converge on the Somme at Pozieres in July 1916.  Their stories are intertwined so this biography is the story of all 3…a father and his 2 young sons who went to serve their King and country in war but not all would survive the war…2 would make the supreme sacrifice. 

Lewis is described as being 5ft 7ins tall with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair.  His service number was 4785 and his rank Private.  He proceeded to Blackboy Hill Camp and in late November was posted to the 4th Depot Battalion A Company.  A month later he was assigned to the 16th Battalion.  He embarked from Fremantle on 1st April 1916 on HMAT Ulysses and disembarked at Suez, Egypt, on 24th April 1916.  He proceeded to Serapeum Camp but after the AIF underwent a period of expansion and reorganisation, the 11th Battalion was split to provide experienced personnel to the newly formed 48th Battalion so on 20th May 1916 Lewis was transferred to the 48th.  He embarked from Alexandria for France on 7th June 1916 on HMT Huntspill and disembarked at Marseilles a week later. 

Meanwhile…on the 25th July, Freddie with the 11th Battalion, D Company, was already in France and engaged in the Battle of Pozieres.  By the end of that day Freddie was reported missing and confusion reigned for quite some time as to what really happened to him.  No one actually witnessed his death and his body was not recovered.  However, after a long investigation it was finally determined in June 1918 that he was killed in action on the 25th July 1916.  He was aged 16.  That same day Frank was at Naours, 40klms west of Pozieres and was marching toward Pozieres with the 16th Battalion to take part in the same battle.  His father Lewis was 60klms west of Pozieres at Berteaucourt and was also making his way towards Pozieres to join his unit.  Frank suffered shell shock during the battle of Mouquet Farm on 10th August 1916 and was evacuated to Boulogne.  Just 2 days later on the 12th August Lewis joined his unit at Sausage Valley, Pozieres.  The battalion had been resting behind the line after having been engaged in the Battle of Mouquet Farm which had commenced on 10th August.  The battalion returned to the frontline on the day Lewis arrived and he experienced war at its worst with the constant shelling that turned the ground into holes and some men into vapour.  The battalion retired from the line the next day and over the next 2 weeks Lewis passed through some of the same towns that his 2 sons had before him…Albert, Warloy, Berteaucourt, Rubempre and Vadencourt.  He marched most of this in torrential rain.  After relieving the 12th Battalion on 30th August at La Boisselle the battalion began rebuilding the trenches.  At some point during the day a shell exploded right beside Lewis which seriously wounded his right leg and caused a compound fracture of his right arm.  He was evacuated to the 14th General Hospital at Wimereux where doctors amputated his leg at the knee.  On 5th September 1916 he was evacuated to England on the hospital ship HMHS Jan Breydel and admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth.  A medical board ruled him permanently unfit for duty in October 1916 then on15th December 1916, while still at Wandsworth, doctors performed a re-amputation of the leg up to the thigh.  His right arm had very limited movement at the elbow due to laceration of muscle and tissue and left him with a permanent disability.  He was transferred to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Southall on 22nd March 1917.  It was while here that Lewis went AWOL from 9pm to 9am and it would seem that he spent that time with his wife Annie which 9 months later resulted in the birth of their 5th child Lewis.  Lewis Snr embarked from Devonport UK on 1st November 1917 on HMAT Anchises for return to Australia and disembarked at Fremantle WA on Christmas Day.  On 26th January 1918 while undergoing further surgery on his wounds at the 8th Australian General Hospital at Fremantle, Lewis collapsed under the chloroform anaesthetic and died on the table.  He was 41.  Lewis was given a military funeral on 28th January 1918 and buried at the Fremantle Cemetery.  Pozieres had claimed its 2nd victim from the Collins family. 

In less than 7 weeks in the fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm 3 Australian divisions suffered 23,000 casualties.  Of these, 6,800 men were killed or died of wounds.  It was a loss comparable with the casualties sustained by the Australians over eight months at Gallipoli in 1915.  Lewis and his son Freddie were 2 of these casualties and in his own way, Frank was too…he wasn’t killed but he was damaged in that he was never the same again. 

After treatment for his shell shock Frank returned to his unit and from July to October 1916 he saw plenty of action with the 16th Battalion who took part in several major battles…the 3rd Battle of Ypres, Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Passchendaele.  In late February 1918 Frank was transferred to Australian Army Service Corps (AASC) after he’d committed several offences.  These offences all date from after his shell shock and the death of his brother.  Prior to that he had an exemplary record.  On 27th December 1918 Frank married Ivy May Collins, his childhood sweetheart from Witley, at Godalming in Surrey.  They embarked from England for Australia and arrived at Fremantle on 3rd August 1919.  

Annie returned to live in Perth WA in January 1920 bringing the 3 youngest children with her.  Frank and Ivy welcomed 2 children…Marion and Ronnie and by 1927 they were living at Balingup, 230klms south of Perth WA.  Frank passed away in the repatriation ward of Perth Hospital on 6th August 1927 aged 28.  He was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth WA.  

After the war Annie received a Memorial Scroll, Plaque and Royal Letter from the King, for both Freddie and Lewis.  These were presented to the next of kin of those who died while serving in the Australian Imperial Force in WW1, acknowledging the soldier’s service and their loss. 

Lewis is commemorated on several memorials…State War Memorial WA, Fremantle Fallen Sailers & Soldiers Memorial and the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour in Canberra ACT.

Lewis Frank Collins was awarded for service in the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.  

Respectfully submitted by Sue Smith 3rd October 2023.

Sources

The Lost Boys by Paul Byrnes (Book)