Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

After discussions with my brother Luke, I realise my Grandmother Jess was born in 1900, so Fred would have been born in 1902 and been 15 years old at the time of embarkation.

Uncle Fred.

Frederick James Coon is buried in Lithgow cemetery next to his wife Violet May Coon. When I was researching uncle Fred I discovered that he shipped out to war aboard HMAT Nestor on 21 November 1917, as a member of the 3rd Pioneer battalion from Ararat, Victoria. Like many other boys and young men, he put his age up to be able to go to war and the army was quite happy to believe anything they said, in order to take them. Uncle Fred was my grandmother‘s (Jess) younger brother, younger by two years and she was born in 1902. My grandmother was very proud of her brother Fred and would often tell stories about the pair of them when they were children, the sort of things they got up to and how much trouble they got into as well. In particular, she told of how once she had to rush to Fred’s defence when older boys tried to push him in the creek because he wouldn’t hand over the tadpoles he was collecting. He was too small to fight them off so my grandmother, being two years older, took them on herself. According to her story, they didn’t lose the tadpoles.

This means young Fred was born in 1904, so when he died in 1975, the army thought he was 79 years old and put that on his tombstone. In fact he was only 71 years old so this means that when he shipped out to war in 1917, he was only 13, going on 14.

It’s a miracle he survived, but he did. They went to France and when I find out more about what they did there, I’ll update the story.

I only knew uncle Fred when I was a small boy and I remember a few things about him: he and auntie Violet lived in Lithgow and my grandmother and grandfather would take us to visit from Sydney in their car. Once, he took my brother Luke and I for a walk along the train tracks with an old sack in which we collected coal for the fire. When we returned home he left the sack outside and we went in. Auntie Violet got us into trouble for going along the train tracks, but uncle Fred said we hadn’t. My brother and I were filthy with coal dust from head to toe, so uncle Fred got quite the dressing down and we both got plonked in the bath. He roared with laughter (which was typical of uncle Fred) and auntie Violet’s heart melted. When we got out of the bath, there were plenty of biscuits and warm drinks beside the fire.

He was small in stature with a huge smile, dark hair and sparkling eyes. He walked with a kind of rolling gait, he was very strong and quick, with the biggest, Booming voice I have ever heard. And he always seemed to be so pleased to see me, bellowing out ”Here he is!” or something similar when I walked into wherever he was. Uncle Fred is a big influence on me in regards to how I treat my own grandchildren, as I understand firsthand how good it feels when an important adult in your life makes a big fuss about you.