FOREMAN, Frederick Walter
| Service Number: | 2768 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 March 1915, at Keswick |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Mount Pleasant South Australia, 6 March 1886 |
| Home Town: | Keswick, City of West Torrens, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Victoria, Australia, 16 May 1973, aged 87 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne |
| Memorials: | Unley Town Hall WW1 Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 15 Mar 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2768, 10th Infantry Battalion, at Keswick | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Sep 1915: | Involvement Private, 2768, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Anchises embarkation_ship_number: A68 public_note: '' | |
| 2 Sep 1915: | Embarked Private, 2768, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Anchises, Adelaide |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Saint Ignatius' College
Biography of Frederick Walter Foreman
Before the War
Frederick Walter Foreman was born on the 6th of March 1886 in Mount Pleasant. It is unknown which school Frederick attended during his childhood. He grew up in Keswick, where he would eventually enlist for the military, and married Sarah Elizabeth. Frederick had Dark brown hair and blue eyes, and he was fairly short for his age of 29 years, being only 5’4”. He worked as a labourer, meaning he would have helped build buildings and do heavy work, which meant that he was in fit condition for the army. He and his wife were Methodists, a religion that had started to boost in popularity during the early 1900s. He was called in nominal roll on the 11th of March 1915 and enlisted 4 days later in Keswick.
During the War
Foreman embarked on his journey on the 26th of August 1915 and travelled on the H.M.A.T. P & O Morea. However, due to poor hygiene and sanitation, many soldiers of the tenth battalion contracted enteric fever, and one of those soldiers was Foreman. Enteric fever is a type of disease that is spread through salmonella and close contact. This means that the food being served on the ship may have been undercooked, and as one person ate it and spread it to another, it would have gone out of control. Symptoms of the disease are rashes, stomach aches, diarrhoea, and headaches. This meant that he was unable to fight in the war, and he had to be taken to a hospital. He was admitted to the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Lemnos. It is not clear from the records whether he reached Gallipoli; if so, he cannot have been on the peninsula very long. He embarked back on the “Nestor” ex Suez on the 9th February 1916, arriving at Melbourne on 13th of March 1916. His condition did not significantly improve and he was discharged from the AIF on the 15th of October 1916.
After the War
Instead of returning to Keswick after the war, Foreman arrived in Melbourne. Frederick Foreman lived in Melbourne after the war for 57 years, until his eventual death in 1973. He died at the age of 87. He lived a long life considering he was in the war, and may have been saved by the outbreak of enteric fever in the tenth battalion, as if he hadn’t returned home after contracting it, he may have died in another battle, such as the battle of Gallipoli or on the western front.
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