DENISON, Frank Arthur
| Service Number: | 4788 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 5 November 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 5th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Hay, New South Wales, Australia, 1883 |
| Home Town: | Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Hay, Pooncarrie and Menindee Public Schools, New South Wales |
| Occupation: | Coach driver |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 20 September 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 5 Nov 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4788, 5th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 4788, 5th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wiltshire embarkation_ship_number: A18 public_note: '' | |
| 7 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 4788, 5th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wiltshire, Melbourne |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Frank Arthur Denison was born in Hay NSW in 1883 and was schooled at Hay, Pooncarie and Menindee Public Schools, NSW. He was the second eldest of a family of 11 children and their father Joseph Denison was a coach driver who owned the Menindee and Wentworth mail line coaches. Joseph died suddenly in 1906 and the widowed mother, Mary Denison was awarded the license to the Quondong Hotel. The Quondong Hotel, a single storey timber and corrugated iron structure, was located 50km south east of Broken Hill on the Menindee Road, on the banks of the mostly dry Stephens Creek. In granting the transfer, the magistrate pointed out to the applicant that the hotel had been shamefully run in the past. It was to be hoped that she would improve the place, otherwise a renewal would not be granted.
The hotel was situated pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it would have been a tough life. Frank Denison and his brother Eric were both coach drivers and perhaps keeping their father’s business going. Eric Denison died due to injuries from a fight with Daniel Minahan Licensee of a Hotel near Tibooburra in 1913, aged only 19 years. Frank Arthur Denison enlisted in Melbourne in late 1915. He was wounded in action during late 1916, a gunshot wound to the face and evacuated to England where he recovered and was sent back to his unit during June 1917. He was killed in action on the 20 September 1917 and according to his service file buried about 300 yards SW of Glencourse Wood in Belgium. His grave was lost after the war and he is remembered on the Ypres Menin Wall Memorial.
His mother Mary Denison had in 1917 also relinquished the license of the Quondong Hotel and moved to Adelaide SA. She was upset about not learning of Frank’s first wounding in 1916 and wrote to Base Records in August 1917, ‘…..I think that the least you could have done was to acquaint me of the fact of his care. It is poor encouragement for me or any other mother to consent to their sons going, considering I am a widow and had to battle hard to rear my children and have one younger son, who is in camp now and about to sail under-age…..’
Frank’s younger brother Percy Lionel Denison served with the 5th Pioneer Battalion and returned to Australia in 1919. The Quondong Hotel burnt down in 2001 and only the ruins exist today, in what is still a very remote and lonely part of Australia. Mary Denison passed away in Adelaide during 1935.
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