POLLARD, Francis Henry
| Service Number: | 2764 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 June 1916, Melbourne, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd Pioneer Battalion |
| Born: | Teddywaddy, Vic., 1897 |
| Home Town: | Kensington, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Bolinda State School |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | 1961, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Bolinda State School Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Jun 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2764, 2nd Pioneer Battalion, Melbourne, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 2764, 2nd Pioneer Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Karroo embarkation_ship_number: A10 public_note: '' | |
| 18 Sep 1916: | Embarked Private, 2764, 2nd Pioneer Battalion, HMAT Karroo, Melbourne |
Help us honour Francis Henry Pollard's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Peter Sneddon
Dan, Frank, George and Jim Pollard were brothers from a farming family in the Carlsruhe and Kyneton area. Their parents, Janet Billings and Squire Pollard married in 1881 and had eleven children: Robert John (b 1881), Caroline Anne (b. 1883), William Squire (b. 1885), Samuel (b. 1886), Alexander Gordon (b. 1888), Daniel (b. 1890), Ada May (b. 1891), George (b. 1893), James Hillard (b. 1895), Francis Henry (b. 1897), and Charles Pollard (b. 1899). Unusually for that time period, all eleven children survived into adulthood.
Frank, James, Daniel, George as well as Charles attended Bolinda School sometime between 1899 and 1913.
Frank and George both enlisted in mid-1916.
After waving goodbye to Australian shores, Frank proceeded aboard the
“Karoo” to France via England. While overseas he attended the 5th Army
Musketry School. In May 1917, he was evacuated to a contact camp via the
7th Australian Field Ambulance. A contact camp was a temporary hospital
set up to isolate sick soldiers who had contracted communicable diseases.
Photo 34: Newspaper announcement of
Daniel’s death (Mount Wycheproof
Ensign and East Wimmera Advocate
1917:2).
88
Frank was admitted to the camp on the 26th of May. On 2 June he was returned to duty. A week later, he was detached for work at the 5th Army Musketry School but that same day he was admitted to the hospital with trench fever. After several days, he was shipped to a hospital in England for treatment. Once recovered he returned to France. In August 1918, he was wounded in action but remained on duty. Within a couple of weeks he was admitted to the hospital ill which eventually turned into a septic right forearm lesion. In late 1918, he attended the 25th Lewis Gun Course at the Australian School of Musketry in England and was awarded 1st Class in range practice, 4th exam. In January 1919, he went AWOL for two days. In response, he received 3 days field punishment No. 2 and forfeited five days’ pay. In field punishment No. 2 the soldier was placed in fetters and handcuffs but could still march with his unit and would also have been subjected to hard labour. He returned to Australia aboard the “Orca” in early 1919.
Upon returning from war, Frank married Elsie Bertha Collins Graham in 1921. They lived together at Newmarket and Frank worked as a labourer. By 1925 they had moved to City Coffee Palace in Hamilton and Frank had taken work as a fencer. The City Coffee Palace, also known as the Hamilton Coffee Palace, was a private hotel associated with the Temperance Movement. Within a year, they had moved to Mooroopna. By 1931, Elsie and Frank appear to have gone their separate ways with Elsie moving back to Melbourne though it is not clear where Frank ended up. In 1942, Frank is listed in the electoral roll as living alone at Hattah working as a trapper while Elsie was working as a textile worker living in Heidelberg. Frank died in 1961 and Elsie in 1981.