Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frederick Joss Blackman was born 19 December 1881 in Townsville and registered on the electoral roll for Cardwell in November 1911. He enlisted in June 1916, taking his oath to the King in Cairns (service number 2625) and gave his occupation as “harness maker”. He had also done occasional work for the council. He cut and hauled timber to the shore end of the Cardwell jetty for repairs in June 1910, and in 1911 did some work on shire roads for which he was paid eight shillings.

After joining up Fred was sent to Bells Paddock, Enoggera and following training he sailed from Brisbane to Plymouth on HMAT Marathon with the 6th Reinforcements to the 47th Infantry Battalion, AIF, leaving Brisbane in late October 1916. He was transferred from the 47th Battalion to Engineers Details and trained as a Sapper at Brightlingsea in England. He joined his unit at Rouelles, France in August 1917 and proceeded into the field. During his service with 4th Field Company, Australian Engineers on the Somme and in Belgium he was hospitalized several times with the horrible sicknesses of the trenches that most of his fellow soldiers suffered including pleurisy and scabies; he also suffered severe knee problems. He served a short time attached to the 1st Anzac Corps Workshops and in 1918 he was transferred to the 23rd Depot Unit of Supply. At the close of hostilities he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

While in France in late 1919, he obtained permission to attend a lace manufacturer in Paris with a view to obtaining general experience in the lace industry so that he could take an agency to Australia. During this time he married a French bride. On 13 December 1919 he was granted indefinite leave, subject to recall, while awaiting a family ship back to Australia. He and his wife resided in London until they embarked on HT Themistocles on 22 December 1919. He was discharged on 29 March, 1920.

Fred returned from the war with his French wife, Odetta, and undertook saddlery work at Murray Upper and at his father’s shop in Cardwell. Fred then moved to Townsville where he worked for a saddlery firm before moving to Ingham and commencing a similar business of his own. Frederick Joss Blackman died on 12 August 1951 at the age of 69 and is buried in the new Ingham Cemetery; his wife Odetta Fienando Blackman had predeceased him and was buried in April 1940.
Courtesy of The Cardwell and District Historical Society.