Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frank Straiton #6170 26th Battalion

Frank Straiton was born in Brisbane in 1895. He lived with his mother, Elizabeth, at Junction Street Thompson’s Estate (now Annerley) and attended Junction Park State School. He was evidently a promising student and after leaving school secured a position as a bank clerk with the Royal Bank ( which eventually became the Bank of Queensland). Sometime before his enlistment, Frank was transferred by his employer to Boonah.

Frank presented himself for enlistment on 19th September 1916 in Brisbane. He stated his age as 21 years and 5 months and also advised that he had held a commission as a Lieutenant in the Citizens Military Forces. When providing details of his next of kin, Frank named Elizabeth Soden of Junction Street and claimed she was his sister. As other documents in Frank’s file reveal, Elizabeth Soden was in fact Frank’s mother. The ruse that she and her son contrived was an attempt to disguise the fact that Frank was illegitimate; a thoroughly understandable position for the time.

Frank reported to Enoggera where he was placed in a depot battalion before being allocated to the 26th Battalion as a reinforcement. The 26th Battalion was part of the 7th Brigade, 2nd Division AIF and had been involved in action at Gallipoli and the Somme. In the latter half of 1916, the AIF was in desperate need of reinforcements after the 23,000 casualties sustained in the fighting at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm from July until September. Therefore it is not surprising that Frank boarded the “Marathon” in Brisbane on 27th October, just five weeks after his enlistment. The “Marathon” arrived in Plymouth on 9th January 1917.

The new recruits spent three months attached to the 9th Training Battalion at Rolleston before being shipped to France and on to the rest areas in Belgian Flanders where they were taken on strength by the 26th. The entire 7th Brigade was in great need of a rest after the travails of the Somme in 1916 and Flers and Bullecourt in 1917. The arrival of the recruits coincided with a period of rest and training that stretched from May through to September 1917.

The 3rd Battle of Ypres; usually referred to as Passchendaele, began on 7th June at Messines. The general in charge planned for a less risky strategy than had been employed on the Somme at such great cost. The 7th Brigade entered the battle in September at the Battle of Menin Road, followed closely by an attack on Broodesinde Ridge in early October before being withdrawn to the support lines around Messines for the coming winter. By November of 1917, Frank had seen action twice and he had been promoted to full corporal.

The entire AIF of five divisions spent the winter of 1917/18 in relative comfort in billets at Poperinghe in Belgium. With the signing of a peace treaty with the Bolshevik Government in November 1917, the Germans had in excess of 20 divisions that could be deployed elsewhere. The spring of 1918 offered the German commander on the Western Front, Ludendorff, a brief window in which he could take advantage of his superiority in numbers. The window would close as soon as General Pershing’s American regiments, which at full strength would be over one million men under arms, were sufficiently trained to be put into the fight.

On 21st March 1918, Operation Michael was launched in the valley of the Somme. The German advance retook all the ground that had been won by the British in 1916 and 1917.

In a desperate move to halt the advance, General Haig, the British Commander ordered the AIF south from Belgium to take up a blocking position in front of Amiens. The 26th Battalion was engaged in numerous small engagements to meet the enemy advance through April and May. On 4th July, the newly promoted Australian Corps Commander; Lieutenant General John Monash, launched a counter attack at Hamel. Hamel became the template for all of the major battles of 1918 that followed and demonstrated the importance of meticulous planning and coordinated use of artillery, air power and tanks. The 26th continued to rotate in and out of the line during the first weeks of July. A company of the battalion came across an abandoned German AV7 tank in a shell hole in Monument Wood, which they subsequently claimed. The tank, named Mephisto, was transported back to Brisbane as a war trophy and now holds pride of place in the Queensland Museum at Southbank.

After Hamel, Frank was granted some well deserved leave. He spent three weeks in England and did not return to his unit until 17th August. While he had been away, the tide had turned for the British and Commonwealth Forces after the resounding success of another Monash planned battle on 8th August; the Battle of Amiens.
The war had changed from one of trenches and artillery duels into open warfare across fields and orchards.

The German forces were hastily withdrawing to the east with the Australians hard on their heels. By the beginning of September, Monash’s corps had reached the right angle bend in the Somme River opposite the fortress town of Peronne. To the immediate north of Peronne was Mont Saint Quentin. Monash sent several brigades from the 2nd Division against the defenders on the Mount with one assault being accompanied by the men yelling and screaming “like a bunch of bushrangers.”

The defenders on Mt St Quentin were an elite Prussian guards unit and the battle swung back and forward over several days. On 2nd September at 5:30am, the 26th began a charge up the hill. By the end of the day the hill was secured and 30 machine guns had been taken as their crews either ran away or were eliminated. The battalion lost 3 officers and 18 other ranks killed in action on what proved to be the greatest achievement of the war by the 2nd Division.

Unfortunately, one of those killed was Corporal Frank Straiton. He was buried by his mates in an isolated grave which remained undisturbed as the war moved on to its inevitable conclusion five weeks later. Frank’s remains would eventually be reinterred in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension. His headstone would read son of James and Elizabeth Straiton; His country called: He Answered.

The winding up of Frank’s estate led to a few surprises. His will bequeathed a third share each to Millie May Elliott of Boonah, Margaret Thackeray a widow and Elizabeth Soden, his mother. The authorities also wrote to Elizabeth to establish the rightful recipient of Frank’s service medals which prompted her to reply confessing that she had been abandoned by Frank’s father, James, before he was born and had never been married to him. She confessed to claiming to be Frank’s sister so as not to cause distress to Frank and a young lady upon whom he was quite keen; the Miss Elliott of Boonah. Having satisfied the authorities that she was genuine, Frank’s file recording next of kin was amended to name Elizabeth as his mother. Elizabeth duly received the service medals and war gratuity.

At the top of Mont St Quentin today stands the memorial to the 2nd Division AIF. It depicts a digger standing relaxed and gazing down on an onlooker. This is the second such divisional memorial erected on this site. The original, erected in 1920 depicted an Australian soldier with rifle and bayonet raised and aimed at an eagle on the ground. The soldier had his boot on the bird’s throat. This memorial was destroyed during the German occupation of 1940 – 44. The road which runs up and over the Mont is named Avenue de Australiens.

As a final footnote to this narrative, a search of records revealed a James Straiton of Tingal Road Wynnum who enlisted in 1915 at the age of 34. Straiton is not a common surname. Ironically this man was for a time a member of the 26th Battalion. Could this be Frank’s father?