Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Francis was the son of William BIDDLE & Sophia Louise HOSKIN and was born on the 22nd of January 1889 in Torrens Vale, near Yankalilla, SA.
To his family and friends he was known as Amos.

His parents were married on the 7th of September 1882 at the residence of Sophia’s parents in Dairy Flat, SA.

His father was the son of James BIDDLE & Ann HARDING and was born on the 17th of March 1852 in Clarendon, SA.
His mother was the daughter of James Turner Philip HOSKIN & Hannah WHITE and was born on the 9th of August 1862 in Myponga, SA.

Francis was the third child born into this family of 5 children.

His father was a farmer and they lived on the family property at Torrens Vale, near Yankalilla.

Francis attended the Yankalilla Public School and upon leaving school he became a farmer with his father.

Francis joined the 16th Light Horse Regiment for 1 year before leaving on his own accord.

At the age of 27, Francis enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 26th of April 1916 in Adelaide and allotted the service number 2577 and posted to B Company, 2nd Depot Battalion. He was then transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion, 5th Reinforcements.

Francis embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A73 Commonwealth on the 21st of September 1916, disembarked in Plymouth on the 14th of November and marched into the Pioneer Training Battalion in Perham Downs.
He served in France and after more than 3 years overseas Francis embarked from England on board HT Persic on the 13th of July 1919, disembarking in Adelaide on the 27th of August.

Francis was discharged from the AIF on the 11th of October 1919.

Francis married Marjorie Jean RAYE on the 20th of October 1920 in Christ Church, Yankalilla, SA.
Marjorie was the daughter of Henry Robert RAYE & Sophia Rosalie HUMBERSTONE and was born on the 5th of January 1896 in Victor Harbor, SA.

They then welcomed their first child; Nancy Raye, on the 29th of July 1921, followed by Reginald Alvin, on the 6th of November 1922.
When Reginald was born they were living in Murrayville, Victoria, near Pinnaroo as Francis’s sister was living in Pinnaroo with her husband.

They then moved to Middleton in the mid 1930’s where Francis was employed as a labourer, before moving back to Torrens Vale by the late 1930’s.

Francis died on the 22nd of January 1954 in Torrens Vale and was buried in the Yankalilla Cemetery on the 24th; Section A, Plot 14.

Marjorie died on the 6th of June 1959 in Yankalilla and was buried in the Christ Church Anglican Cemetery in Yankalilla.

Military

At the age of 27, Francis enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 26th of April 1916 in Adelaide and allotted the service number 2577 and posted to B Company, 2nd Depot Battalion.
He listed his mother, of Torrens Vale, near Yankalilla, as his next of kin.

On the 16th of July he was transferred to the Base Light Horse and then on the 16th of August he was transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion, 5th Reinforcements.

Francis embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A73 Commonwealth on the 21st of September 1916, disembarked in Plymouth on the 14th of November and marched into the Pioneer Training Battalion in Perham Downs.

Francis proceeded to France on the 16th of January 1917 and was taken on strength with the 5th Pioneer Battalion on the 7th of March at Waterlot Farm.

By the 24th of March they controlled a mule tramway, hauling stores & ammunition by this line by mules to Beaulencourt, 100 tons of material being shifted daily. This occupied 2 Company’s, one conducting the operation & the other the maintenance. The other 2 Company’s were employed in further railway extensions under the Corps. Battalion Headquarters had in the meantime moved from Waterlot Farm to near Gueudecourt, then on to Reincourt, near Bapaume & later to Fremicourt.
As the Railway work was completed, attention was diverted to Roads & among other works the Battalion filled a large mine crater in the Main Cambrai road and they made a brick and log road over the top. A number of strong points, 18 in all, were also dug in the neighbourhood of Vaulx-Vraucourt. On the 20thth of April the Divisional was relieved including Francis and his Battalion who were sent back to repair the road through Flers over which the Divisional Transport had to pass.
This was done and on the afternoon of April 21st the battalion moved to the hutted camp near Bernafay Wood.

After one day only at Bernafay a move was made to a comfortable camp at Fricourt. Here a small amount of training was carried out but attention was chiefly devoted to sport. Football & athletics were the order of the day, a fine boxing stadium was built and a ground prepared for a Divisional Horse Show near Albert. The Battalion also constructed its own rifle range.
However all these preparations were cut short by a sudden order to move to the front once again and on May 9th the men were conveyed by light railway to Bapaume, marching on to a camp near Vaulx.

Here D Company was heavily shelled, one of their tents receiving a direct hit. The Battalion casualties that day were the heaviest recorded, 12 men being killed and 23 others wounded. The camps were immediately moved to a better position.
The stay in this sector lasted a fortnight only but during that time they constructed a trench tramway from Vaulx to 600 yards beyond Noreuil, besides carrying forward 8000 yards of rail for further extensions.
They built 5 deep dugouts near battery positions for shelter for the gun crews, 2 communication trenches running to the Hindenburg line were maintained and a large quantity of mining timber man handled from Noreuil to the Hindenburg Line.

On the 24th of May they moved to the villages of Thilloy & Ligny Thilloy, just behind Bapaume. While specialist training such as bombing, signalling and Lewis Gun handling was carried out here, the main body of the Battalion was ordered to dig trench defences for the villages of Baucourt & Reincourt.
These were completed by the 12th of June and 5 days later they moved partly by train and then partly by march to "Midland Huts" Camp near Albert.
Here a more complete training programme was developed and put into practice. This was somewhat interfered with by various jobs which were ordered to be carried out, such as cleaning the bed of the river Ancre, the construction of a field firing range near Thiepval and a large divisional sports ground near Henencourt.

Cleaning of the Ancre river bed was extremely popular, as the weather was hot and the work had to be carried out with (or without) bathing costumes.
On the 7th of July they moved to Corbie where a further 3 weeks was spent partly in training, but mostly in swimming.
This village was far removed from the scene of warfare and little did Francis think that it would a year later be reduced to a state of ruins.

Their next camp was in the neighbourhood of Blaringhem where further training was carried out and they took part in various reviews before visiting Generals including one by Sir Douglas Haig.
After a long spell of nearly two months in this area, sudden orders were received on the 7th of September to move by motor lorry to the Ypres district to take part in the large offensive that was in progress.

Their camp for the next two months while the Ypres offensive was in progress was at a ready made camp known as Pioneer Camp which was situated near Dickebusch.
At 11pm on the night of the 20th of September an urgent message was received for the whole Battalion to construct a plank road leading off the Menin Road near Hooge, the following morning accordingly at 3am they turned out and commenced clearing the track.
By noon sufficient planks and material to complete the whole of this road had been brought to the site and 500 yards of road laid before the work was then handed over to a relieving unit who were able to complete it the same evening and thus the guns got forward that night.

The next day a second road was started from Chateau Wood to Glencorse Wood, about a mile long, which was completed in 5 days and was one of the main means of communication during the attack on Polygon wood.

For the next few days odd jobs were again the rule and Francis and his Battalion were engaged in the improvement and maintenance of the already made roads. This in itself was no light task as daily great gaps were blown in them by direct hits from the enemy’s shells.
They constructed duck tracks, laid pipe lines and escorted convoys of motor lorries over the roads which was necessary as the roads got so knocked about and frequently blocked, not only by shells but by debris of the shattered wagons which had to be cleared.
This area was perhaps the worst for heavy and continuous shelling and the weather conditions greatly added to the difficulties.

The battalion camp, too, although some 8 or 9 miles from the line was by no means free from enemy vindictiveness. All the back areas from Poperinge forward were nightly visited by squadrons of enemy aeroplanes. It was a continuous speculation as to whether your camp or somebody else’s would get the bombs they dropped.
On the night of October 18th the Battalion ‘got it’ which resulted in 43 casualties, of which 10 men were killed outright.

On the 26th of October 1917 Francis was transferred to the 4th Pioneer Battalion at Virchin.
Here they were engaged in the construction of huts and stables in the forward area and the maintenance of the tramline from Westhoek to Zonnebeke.
They remained here and then moved to Tilloy at the end of November for training before moving to Templeaux-la-Fosse on the 12th of December. Here they worked on erecting a hanger for Battalion drill and they spent Christmas 1917 here and enjoyed a roast meal and Christmas pudding.

After Christmas they continued trench digging and constructed splinter proof dugouts before moving to Peronne on the 8th of January, entrained to Bailleul and then moved to Godezonne Farm.
Here they worked on drainage for the tramway and the dugouts for all of February and March and then Francis was transferred back to the 5th Pioneer Battalion on the 30th of April 1918 who were at Bussy-les-Daours.

Trench digging in this area proceeded rapidly and they moved from one job to another and each trench after being dug was defended by barbed wire entanglements.
A large number of bomb proof shelters (50 in all) were also built for various batteries.
On the 31st of May they were relieved by the 4th Pioneer Battalion and after a fortnight’s spell they moved northwards to a camp behind La Houssoye.
Here trench digging was the main item but as the area was already well provided with trenches, attention was paid to improving and deepening these.

By end of July 3½ miles of trench was deepened while 1½ miles of new trenches were dug. A saw mill at Heilly was operated by the Battalion and timber being felled near the river was floated down to the mill, broken down and sawn into suitable sizes.

On the 30th of July they moved out of this sector back to their old camp at Bussy-les-Daous. Here a thorough rest was indulged in, bathing concerts and sports meetings being regularly held.
They then moved to Villers-Brettoneux on the 7th of August in preparation for an operation of an unprecedented scale, which was take place at dawn the following morning.

Francis and his Battalion’s main task was to make good the main road leading due east through Villers-Brettoneux and Warfusee which was to be passable for armoured cars and general traffic as soon as possible afterwards.

A few days later they moved to near Morcourt and camped on a large hillside and worked on communication trenches and road maintenance.
However on August the 29th the enemy retired to the head of the Somme by Peronne so a rapid move forward to Belloy-en-Santerre and Flaucourt was made.
The main roads were still maintained and in addition a large quantity of light bridging material was carried forward for the field Companies.

They then received orders for an operation to be carried out against the Hindenburg Line, through Bellicourt and beyond.
On October the 4th they moved back to Roisel which subsequently proved, as many felt, to be their last day in actual warfare. After a few days first at Roisel and subsequently at Peronne the whole division was withdrawn to an area near Abbeville for a thorough rest. Here training was carried out and a large amount of time devoted to athletics and sport amusements.
Orders were then received to be ready to move on November 10th to further take part on the fighting, but this move was postponed to November 12th.
However the Armistice was signed on November 11th so this moved was postponed indefinitely.

Five days later Francis was granted 2 weeks leave in England and when he rejoined his Battalion on the 3rd of December they were located at Hautrepe.
Just over 2 weeks later Francis suffered from Scabies and was admitted into the 14th Australian Field Ambulance at Sautain.
Francis spent Christmas 1918 in here before rejoining his Battalion on New Years Day at Beaurieux and they had already begun their demobilization.
By April they had moved to Renlies and then on the 4th of April he embarked for England and marched into No.6 Camp in Sutton Veny.

Francis was then detached to the AIF Headquarters in London on the 28th of April.

Francis embarked from England on board HT Persic on the 13th of July 1919, disembarking in Adelaide on the 27th of August.

Francis was discharged from the AIF on the 11th of October 1919 and awarded the British War & Victory Medals.