Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Telegraph, Brisbane, 18 Sept 1915.
79th Australian casualty list...
1808 Pte. F. Whipps, 15 Btn, 4th rfts., no relatives, killed in action.

No one should die for their country and the only comment be, “no relatives”. Research shows however, many mourned the death of Pte. F. Whipps.

Frederick was Mary Ann Whip’s fifth child. His father, John Jobson, was an abusive and cruel man with a criminal tendency. In 1895, Jobson was incarcerated for four years for stealing cattle. “Mary Whipp and five children, ranging in ages from nine years to four months”, were left “in destitute circumstances at his home amongst the mountains at Boxer’s Creek”, east of Goulburn. The Goulburn police, “took the whole family under their care for protection” while arrangements were made with the state children’s department, to admit the family into the Benevolent Asylum in Sydney. The Goulburn Herald described the children as being “without boots, and had clothing of the scantiest description” as they boarded the train. Frederick Whip was now a ‘State’ boy at the tender age of four and a half years.

Over the next five months, the family were separated. In April, Mary’s baby died and she was discharged from the Asylum. The three older children were placed in care in May, leaving Frederick at the asylum for two and a half months by himself. He was discharged, presumably into foster care, in July 1895. Fred was eventually apprenticed to Mr Ellis Barnes on the New South Wales north coast, at Pimlico. Here he became part of the Barnes family. Fred wrote regularly to his “Mothy” - Mrs. Barnes - while overseas with the A.I.F..

It is unclear if Fred deliberately changed his surname to Whipps or it just evolved over time. He was well known in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales and at the time of his enlistment he was living at Harwood and engaged to Ivy Everett. Travelling into Grafton in January 1915, Fred gave Ivy’s details as a point of contact on his attestation papers, as well as making her the sole beneficiary in his will. Years later, Ivy would make the comment, “I never expected him to go to the war and get killed”.

Many of the men who enlisted from the northern New South Wales districts were assigned to Queensland Battalions. In Fred’s case, this was the fourth reinforcements for the 15th Battalion. Completing his basic training at Enoggera, Fred was far from the model soldier. Absent without leave on at least two occasions and fined for causing a disturbance in a Brisbane hotel, Fred eventually settled to army life. He embarked from Brisbane abroad the A15 HMAT Star of England on the 8th April 1915, just weeks before the 15th Battalion landed on the shores of Gallipoli. The only record of Fred having arrived at Gallipoli is an entry dated the 19-7-15, where he was admitted to the Advanced 4th Field Ambulance with gastroenteritis before rejoining his unit the following day.

Pte. James H. Judge (No. 1760), a fellow 15th Battalion comrade, described the Battle of Lone Pine which claimed Fred’s life, in a letter to his father, published in The Mullumbimby Star on the 14th October 1915. “...the place where I was had four machine guns playing on it with thousands of rifles, my mates were falling around me like nine pins. Poor Fred Whipps was beside me, but went down struck in the chest while trying to bandage his hand up from a bullet wound of ten minutes before, ...it was hell let loose (or like it).” Frederick Whipps was killed in action on the morning of the 8th August 1915.

In 1918, Ivy received a small package containing three items, a handkerchief, photograph and razor, the only items of Fred’s to be returned to Australia. In the early 1920’s, the army rejected claims by both Ivy and Mrs. Barnes for Frederick’s War Medals on the insistence they needed to be issued to blood relatives. All searches for Fred’s siblings proved futile, his medals were never issued and were eventually directed to the “untraceables”.

Frederick Whipps name appears on at least two Memorials in New South Wales. In Oct 1916, the Harwood Island Patriotic League Roll of Honour was unveiled, with WHIPPS, F. being the fourth name listed. After the war, the Harwood Soldiers’ Memorial was unveiled. Again Frederick’s name was included as is evident in the Daily Examiner (Grafton) article dated the 20th September 1921. Unfortunately, the passage of time and neglect of the obelisk, has resulted in some of the names, including Frederick’s, now being illegible.

Karen Standen, 2018.