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Captain FJS Mead MC DCM arrived on the Wahehe arriving in South Australia late 1919.  he enlisted at MorphettVille on 19 August 1914.  He was granted a commission in December 1916.  He was promoted to Lieutenant in May 1917, Captain in October 1918.  As Sergeant he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal at Pozieres in 1916, for having organised and led bomb carriers to the trenches under shell fire.  Before dawn he made four trips out into no man's land to rescue wounded men.  The award was gazetted on 21 October 1916.  The MC was  awarded for gallantry shown when moving bombs  to capture objective.  he laed men through hostile artillery and machine gun fire enabled new dumps to be established, thus greatly helping with the consolidation of the new position the MC was gazetted 16 September 1918.  Captain mead is the son of Mrs Mead St. Peters SA was a wharf builder in civilian life

"SERGEANT MEAD, D.C.M.

Sergeant Fred J. S. Mead, who has been awarded the D.C.M., was born at Parkside, in June, 1890. He was educated at the Parkside State School, where he took his compulsory certificate at the age of 12. He was a good all-round athlete, playing football for the St. Oswald and Semaphore Central clubs. He enlisted as a private on the outbreak of the war, and left for the front two years ago. He went through the Gallipoli campaign, being wounded once. His many acts of kindness and his jovial nature have won him many friends." - from the Adelaide Chronicle 28 Oct 1916 (nla.gov.au)

Frederick was the son of John MEAD & Elizabeth MAUNDER and was born on the 30th of June 1890 in Parkside, SA.

His parents were married on the 28th of August 1882 in Halifax Street, Adelaide, SA.

His father was the son of Emmanuel MEAD & Rebecca Isabella TOOTIN and was born on the 8th of October 1857 in Echunga, SA.

His mother was the daughter of Theophilus George MAUNDER & Mary Ann BASSON and was born on the 6th of March 1862 in Kelmscott, England.

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Frederick was the third child born into a family of 5 children.

His father was a cabinet maker and French polisher and the family lived on Elizabeth Street, Eastwood.

Frederick was educated at the Parkside State School, where he took his compulsory certificate at the age of 12. He was a good all-round athlete, playing football for the St. Oswald and Semaphore Central clubs.

On the 20th of September 1909 his elder sister; Laurel Ruby Rebekah Mary, married Stanley Orlando HUGHES and on the 12th of March 1910 Frederick became an uncle for the first time.

By 1911 the family had moved to 3 Bute Terrace, Military Road, Semaphore, where his father died on the 27th of November 1911.

After the death of his father his mother became a dressmaker and Frederick was employed as a wharf builder.

On the 19th of April 1912 Frederick’s brother in-law Stanley, died suddenly in the Adelaide Hospital.

At the age of 24, Frederick enlisted into the newly raised 10th Battalion, D Company on the 19th of August 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 324. Frederick embarked from Outer Harbour, Adelaide on board Transport A11 Ascanius on the 20th of October 1914.

He was one of the first ANZAC’s to land at Gallipoli on the 25th of April 1915.

He then served on the Western Front and whilst on leave on one occasion he married Violet Marian SMITH on the 5th of September 1918 in Knowle, Bristol, Gloucestershire. Violet was the daughter of Harry SMITH & Selina Albina SHEPHERD and was born on the 8th of May 1893 in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

Violet was living at 234 Bath Road, Bristol.

They welcomed their first child; Freda Marian, on the 5th of June 1919 in Cardiff, Wales.

As Frederick had enlisted in 1914 he was granted long service leave, totalling 75 days on the 19th of November and didn’t rejoin his Battalion until the 11th of February 1919 who were at Chatelet Belgium in the cold and snow.

Frederick finally proceeded to England on the 3rd of April 1919, but then returned to France and was stationed at the AIF Depot until the 22nd of August when he gained 4 weeks leave.

Their second child; Lena Beth, was born on the 14th of March 1921 in Adelaide.

They made their home at 42 South Terrace, Semaphore and Frederick was a member of the Semaphore RSL Sub Branch.

On the 26th of October 1921 his sister, Laurel, remarried to Edward Rodney MCNAMARA in the Sacred Heart Church, Pt Adelaide and their witnesses were Edmund LEMAR & Margaret MCNAMARA of Macclesfield. Edward was born in Bugle Ranges and had served in the 8th Machine Gun Company in WW1. They made their home in Macclesfield.

Frederick filed for divorce from Violet on the grounds of misconduct and they divorced on the 4th of November 1930 and Frederick was granted custody of their children.

Frederick then married Mida Josephine Fanny WORTHINGTON nee MARRIOTT in about 1941.

Mida was the daughter of John Edward MARRIOTT & Emily Alice SCHMIDT and was born in 1894 in Adelaide.

Mida was a widow, having previously married Robert Samuel WORTHINGTON on the 11th of June 1921 in the Methodist Manse, Pt Adelaide. They had had a daughter; Fanny, on the 5th of August 1922, but sadly she only lived for 24 hours. Robert had died on the 26th of November 1937.

Frederick and Mida remained at 42 South Terrace, Semaphore and Frederick was a foreman on the wharves.

Frederick and his family would visit Laurel in Macclesfield quite often.

Mida died on the 5th of August 1964 in Semaphore and was cremated and interred in the Centennial Park Cemetery; Columbarium/Wall 24/E009.

In 1966 Frederick suffered a stroke which affected his hand writing and by April the following year he had moved to 18 Mcgilp Avenue, Glengowrie.

Frederick died on the 31st of October 1967 and was cremated and interred in the Centennial Park Cemetery; RSL/Wall 136/F012.

A Dedication Bench to Frederick & Mida is located on the Esplanade at Brighton Beach.

Military

At the age of 24, Frederick enlisted into the newly raised 10th Battalion, D Company on the 19th of August 1914 in Morphettvilleand allotted the service number 324.

He listed his mother, of Military Road, Semaphore, as next of kin.

The 10th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. The battalion was recruited in South Australia, and together with the 9th, 11th and 12th Battalions, formed the 3rd Brigade.

They trained at Morphettville Camp

Frederick embarked from Outer Harbour, Adelaide on board Transport A11 Ascanius on the 20th of October 1914. Frederick was one of 1004 serving persons on this ship, made up of 31 officers, 969 men and 2 nursing sisters.

They arrived in Fremantle 5 days later at 8am. They then sailed for the Cocas Islands and on the 9th of November, about 70 kms from the Islands, a signal was received reporting a strange warship approaching the cable station there.

One of their escort ships, HMAS Sydney, was immediately detached from her escort duties with the convoy and sped off towards the islands, encountering the German raider cruiser SMS Emden. In the engagement that followed HMAS Sydney sustained some early damage and casualties, but the fire so battered and crippled the German ship that Captain von Muller ran the SMS Emden ashore on North Keeling Island.

At 11:15am, Frederick and the personnel on board Ascanius, received the following message – “SMS EMDEN” Beached and Done For. This caused great enthusiasm and cheering on board.

Whilst in the Indian Ocean, at 4:30am on the 21st of November, they collided with the troopship HMAT Shropshire. This resulted in a dent 26 feet long being made in the forward Port Side of their ship, the Ascanius.

On Sunday, the 6th of December 1914 at 4pm, they reached Alexandria and the following day they commenced disembarkation and were entrained to Cairo and then onto Mena Camp.

On the 28th of February 1915 they left Mena Camp and marched to Cairo, then entrained to Alexandria 

On Monday the 1st of March they were joined by the 9th Battalion and boarded the HMT Ionian at 8am.

The following morning they sailed for Lemnos, reaching the island 2 days later, but they remained on the ship in the harbour.

They remained here until the afternoon of Saturday the 24th of April when C & D Company, with Frederick, transferred to HMS Prince of Wales and A & B Company transferred to torpedo destroyers and sailed for the Dardanelles.

At 3am on Sunday the 25th of April, C & D Company, with Frederick, left the Prince of Wales in Cutter life boats and they were towed by steam boats to within about 50 yards of the shore.

Absolute silence was maintained and as the boats were cast off by the steamers they quickly rowed towards the shore and with dawn just breaking at 4:15am, no sound was heard except the splash of oars.

Frederick and the men in the other boats all thought their landing was going to be effected quite unopposed. But when they were about 30 yards off the beach a rifle was fired from the hill in front of them above the beach, right in front of where they were heading for.

Almost immediately heavy rifle and machine gun fire was opened up upon them.

They had to row for another 15 yards or so before they reached water shallow enough to get out of the boats.

They managed to get out of the boats in about 3 feet of water and landed on a stony bottom. The stones were round and slimy and they slipped on them and fell into the water, but they all bravely and silently made haste to reach the beach under a hail of bullets.

Many of the men actually fixed their bayonets before they reached the shore and the order given to lay down and fix bayonets.

By now 9th, 10th & 11th Battalions were all mixed up on the beach around Ari Burnu (ANZAC Cove), but there was no time to reform so they were all ordered to advance. They sprang to their feet and charged up the hill held by the Turks and drove them off it.

Shortly after this A & B Companies off the torpedo destroyers reached the beach and they were also subjected to heavy shrapnel and machine gun fire.

By 8:30am they had reached about a mile inland and were holding by the hill and ridge and they then pushed on to “Shrapnel Ridge” and reported to Brigadier Colonel MacLagan. He was anxious for them to push onto the next ridge but as the Turks developed a strong counter attack he decided that they should dig in on the forward slope of “Shrapnel Ridge”. 

On reaching the high ground it was soon realised that the Brigade had been landed in the wrong position. Making the best of a confusing situation, they were directed to secure “Kilic Bayir” (Baby 700), a prominent feature overlooking the ANZAC positions.

This could not be done, and they opted to establish positions on what would become known as the Second Ridge.

On the 30th of May Frederick was wounded at ANZAC Cove, suffering a shot gun wound to his shoulder and was transferred to hospital on Lemnos Island on board HMHS Franconia the following day.

After 6 weeks recovering he rejoined his Battalion at Gallipoli on the 8th of July and the same day his Battalion proceeded by boat to Imbros Island for 3 days rest, before returning to Gallipoli.

In July the weather was hot and dry and many of Frederick’s mates became ill with Diarrhoea whilst they were improving the trenches and making new fire positions and bomb holes.

In the summer heat conditions rapidly deteriorated. Sickness was rampant, food quickly became inedible and there were vast swarms of black corpse flies.

On the 19th of August Frederick was promoted to Corporal and 3 days later he was promoted to Temporary Sergeant.

Casualties were heavy throughout the campaign and in November 1915, the surviving members were withdrawn from the peninsula on orders to evacuate.

Frederick disembarked in Alexandria on the 29th of November 1915 and was promoted to Sergeant 4 days later.

The 10th Battalion was then split to form the nucleus of two battalions, the 10th and the 50th, but Frederick remained with the 10th.

On the 27th of March 1916 Frederick and his Battalion embarked from Alexandria for Marceilles, disembarking on the 3rd of April, and from then until 1918, the battalion took part in bitter trench warfare.

They undertook training at Strazeele before moving by train to Godewaersvelde and then Sailly-sur-la-Lys.

In mid-May, they occupied billets in the Petillon Sector and on the 19th of May the billets were shelled resulting in losses amounting to three killed and seven wounded.

On the 6th of June, they entered the front line for the first time on the Western Front, occupying positions around Fleurbaix.

Their first significant action on the Western Front came in late July 1916 when they were involved in the Battle of Pozieres, an effort to secure the village of Pozières and the high ground beyond it as part of the wider Battle of the Somme; their casualties during this battle were around 350.

A month later, they took part in the fighting around Mouquet Farm, incurring over 100 more casualties. Later, they fought around Ypres, in Belgium, in front of Hill 60, before being transferred back to the Somme trenches in the winter, during which time they occupied positions around Guedecourt, Cardonette and Bazentin.

It was at Pozieres on the 4th of October 1916 that Frederick was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for conspicuous gallantry during operations on this day. He went out and directed a platoon, which had lost its way, under heavy shell fire. Before dawn he made four trips out into no man's land to rescue wounded men. It was also noted that on other occasions he had done fine and gallant work.

On the Western Front, it was necessary to send out night patrols to capture a German soldier or two in order to establish what unit was facing them. As Frederick was in the 10th Battalion, a South Australian unit, it became the custom to use the name of a South Australian suburb as the password. One night the password was “Henley Beach”, and one member of the patrol struggled in long after the rest of the party. Challenged to say the password, he gasped "The Grange."

Frederick said, "You're a mile out, but come on then, I guess that's near enough".

Frederick was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on the 24th of January 1917 at Albert.

Most of February was spent at Albert in training and Frederick was admitted ill to the 1st Australian Field Ambulance on the 26th of February for 5 days, when he was discharged he rejoined his Battalion who were now at Dernancourt.

They then made an attack at Lourverval on the 8th & 9th of April, before undertaking a defensive role during the German attack on Lagnicourt on the 15th of April. 

This was followed in early May by the Second Battle of Bullecourt and on the 24th of May Frederick was promoted to Lieutenant.

On the 22nd of June Frederick was granted 2 weeks leave to England and then rejoined his Battalion before being commissioned to the 3rd Training Group in Durrington on the 18th of July.

He was then transferred to the Overseas Training Brigade in Longbridge Deverill on the 9th of November.

On the 9th of February 1918 Frederick proceeded back to France and rejoined his Battalion in Aldershot Camp.

In early 1918, following the collapse of Russia, the Germans were able to transfer many troops to the Western Front. In March, they launched the Spring Offensive, attacking the southern part of the British sector in the Somme. As the Allies were pushed back towards Amiens, the Australian divisions were brought south to help blunt the attack.

Throughout late March and into April 1918, Frederick and his Battalion took part in a series of defensive actions, including fighting around Hazebrouck, as the German offensive was halted, before joining in the preliminary operations before the Allied Hundred Days Offensive that ultimately brought about an end to the war.

In June they were located in the Merris Sector and Frederick was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in operations when he was responsible for the moving of bombs to a captured objective on the night of the 2nd / 3rd June 1918 in the Merris Sector. His skilful handling of the carrying parties, and his courage and untiring energy in leading them forward through the hostile artillery and machine gun fire, enabled new dumps to be established, and thus greatly helped with the consolidation of the new position. Throughout the operations his coolness and splendid example enabled the supply of material to the troops in the forward positions to be kept up.

After this Frederick was sent to attend a School of Instruction in France for a few weeks and was then granted 2 weeks leave to England on the 31st of August. Whilst in England he married Miss Violet Marian SMITH on the 5th of September 1918 in Knowle, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Frederick was promoted to Temporary Captain on the 28th of October.

Frederick and his Battalion remained at the front until late September 1918; their last battle took place at Jeancourt on the 18th of September, during which they suffered a further 140 casualties. Later in the month, the Australian Corps, having been severely depleted due to heavy casualties and the dwindling supply of reinforcements from Australia, was withdrawn from the front line for rest and re-organisation.

As a result, Frederick took no further part in the fighting and when the Armistice was declared on the 11th of November 1918, they were moving by train from Brucamps to Ephey to return to the front.

As Frederick had enlisted in 1914 he was granted long service leave, totalling 75 days on the 19th of November and didn’t rejoin his Battalion until the 11th of February 1919 who were at Chatelet Belgium in the cold and snow.

Frederick finally proceeded to England on the 3rd of April 1919, but then returned to France and was stationed at the AIF Depot until the 22nd of August when he gained 4 weeks leave.

Frederick and his new family returned to Melbourne on board the Wahehe on the 14th of December 1919.

Frederick was discharged on the 30th of December 1919.