ALLEN, Fred Cadwallader
| Service Number: | 3010 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 September 1916, Melbourne, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 37th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Talbot, Victoria, Australia, 1894 |
| Home Town: | Talbot, Central Goldfields, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Talbot State School, Maryborough College & Scotch College, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Bank clerk |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 25 August 1918 |
| Cemetery: |
Bray Military Cemetery Plot 1, Row B1, Grave 4, |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Sep 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3010, 37th Infantry Battalion, Melbourne, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Feb 1917: |
Involvement
AIF WW1, Private, 3010, 37th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '17' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ballarat embarkation_ship_number: A70 public_note: '' |
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| 19 Feb 1917: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 3010, 37th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ballarat, Melbourne | |
| 19 Feb 1917: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3010, Melbourne, Victoria | |
| 8 Aug 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 3010, 37th Infantry Battalion, The Battle of Amiens | |
| 25 Aug 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 3010, 37th Infantry Battalion, "The Last Hundred Days" |
Help us honour Fred Cadwallader Allen's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed
Frederick Allen was born on 6 February 1894 in Talbot, Victoria. His parents were Robert and Sara Ann (née Cadwallader) Allen.
Frederick was a bank clerk when he enlisted on 20 September 1916 in Melbourne, Victoria. He served in the 37th Battalion with the rank of Private. His Regimental Number was 3010.
Frederick died on 25 August 1918 at Bray, France. He was 24 years of age.
Service record
At 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm), Fred was tall for the time. Before he left Australia he was allocated to five different groups, including reinforcements to the 6th and 23rd Battalions. By January 1917 he was with the 7th Reinforcements to the 37th Battalion, and embarked with them from Melbourne on 19 February 1917. He would not actually join the 37th for more than a year.
Fred arrived in Devonport, England on Anzac Day 1917. His arrival was dramatic, for the ship in which he and 1751 other troops and crew were travelling, HMAT Ballarat, was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat as she approached the southern English coast on 25 April 1917. Destroyers and fishing boats saved all on board. He marched in to the 10th Training Battalion, and was still there in February 1918, when he was made an Acting Lance Corporal. At one point in 1917 he seems to have received spectacles, perhaps to replace existing ones.
His obituary in The Scotch Collegian says Robert ‘was kept at clerical work in England for 15 months’, suggesting that he was there against his will. He was at a School of Instruction at the Jellalabad Barracks, Taunton, from 4 February to 28 March 1918. He reverted to Private on marching out to the 9th Training Battalion on 30 March. On 23 April, nearly a full year after arrival, he travelled to France, and on 28 April finally joined his battalion, the 37th. Four months later, on 25 August, he was killed in action.
His Red Cross Wounded and Missing file contains several testimonies from soldiers who were with him when an enemy shell landed among them while they marched through Bray (see an example below). All agreed that he was killed instantly, and was one of 9 or 10 casualties caused by this one shell.
Fred’s service record contains much correspondence from his father from 1918 to 1922 asking for information about his son’s grave (see below). He considered it ‘strange and hard after waiting so long a time.’ He noted that Fred had left ‘a splendid position’ in the bank to enlist. His concerns were addressed in subsequent correspondence.
Frederick Allen is buried in the Bray Military Cemetery (Plot I, Row B1, Grave 4), France.
Biography contributed by Elizabeth Allen
Fred Cadwallader ALLEN was born in 1894 in Talbot, Victoria.
His parents were Robert ALLEN and Sarah Ann CADWALLADER
He had previous service with the Senior Cadets for 6 months and was in the Citizens Forces for 4 years (Shell Service) and still serving when he enlisted on 30th September, 1916 with the Australian Army
He was with the 37th Australian Infantry Battalion, 7th reinforcements - Unit embarked from Melbourne on 19th Feb. 1917 on HMAT Ballarat
Fred was Killed in Action on 25th August, 1918 and is buried in Bray Military Cemetery, France - he is also commemorated on the Australian War Memorial - He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
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The Bendigonian Newspaper - Victoria - 19th September 1918
F.C. ALLEN
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Allen of Geelong West have received word that their son Fred Cadwallader Allen aged 24 had been killed in France. He was a nephew of Mr. J. T. Allen, Draper of Maldon and matriculared with honours at the Maryborough College at the age of 17. He then attended the Scotch College, Melbourne where he had a successful course. At the time of leaving Australia he had charge of the outward exchange of the Bank of Australasia in Collins St.
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