ROGERS, Frederick
| Service Number: | 294 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 23 March 1916, Enlisted at Cootamundra. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 5th Machine Gun Company |
| Born: | Devon, England, January 1877 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Permanent Way (track) Worker |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 14 November 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 23 Mar 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 294, 5th Machine Gun Company, Enlisted at Cootamundra. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 May 1916: | Involvement Private, 294, 5th Machine Gun Company, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: '' | |
| 1 May 1916: | Embarked Private, 294, 5th Machine Gun Company, HMAT Benalla, Sydney |
Help us honour Frederick Rogers's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
Frederick ROGERS (Service Number 294) was born at Devon, England about January 1877. (He was 39 years and 2 months old in March 1916.). He was employed by the Railways as a Permanent Way (track) worker.
He enlisted in New South Wales at Cootamundra on 23rd March 1916. He gave his ‘trade or calling’ on his Attestation Papers as ‘Labourer’ . He served in the 3rd Reinforcements to the 5th Australian Machine Gun Company.
At the time of his enlistment he was unmarried, and gave his sister, Mrs Sarah Page of Manchester, England as his next of kin. He also claimed 12 years and 6 months as a gunlayer in the Royal Navy. He was allotted to the 5th Machine Gun Company, Rogers embarked HMAT ‘Benalla’ at Sydney on 1st May 1916. By 21st August he had proceeded overseas to France and was taken on the strength of the Company on 3rd September 1916.
He was killed in action on 14th November 1916. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France.
On 18th October 1954, Annie Hutchinson, of unknown relationship to Rogers, wrote to the military authorities:
‘Dear Sirs,
Re: the late Gunner F. Rogers, No. 294, 5 M.G. Coy A.I.F. who was killed in action in France during 1917. Would it be possible for you to tell me where I could see the above-mentioned name inscribed either on any of the Sydney War Memorials or at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance.’
The AIF Base Records replied that they had no knowledge of any memorial on which the name was inscribed. They suggested that she enquire in Cootamundra as that was where he had enlisted.
She should have been told to visit the Assembly Platform of Sydney Station (now the Grand Concourse of Central Station) as the name had been inscribed there, probably since 1918.
- based on the Australin War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.