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Australia

Excerpts provided below as sourced from For Love of Country by Ian Smith. Reproduced with the permission of the author.

Lawrence Lampard (and Frank Lampard OAM) (for full transcript see link at left side)

Francis Henry “Frank” Lampard was born on 26 November 1946 at the Point McLeay Aboriginal Mission (Raukkan) Hospital. He was the fourth of twelve children – six brothers and five sisters - of Henry Lampard and Evelyn Isabelle Lampard (née Rigney). The children were of both Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna descent. The first few years of Frank’s life were spent at Point McLeay, and his brother Lawrence Murray – known to the family as Lawrie - was born there on 28 April 1948.

Henry and Evelyn decided to leave the mission around 1951. Henry found work as a railway worker in the Murray Mallee, and this meant most of Frank and Lawrie’s primary school years were spent at Lameroo and Karoonda Area Schools, with the family living at railway sidings like Mulpata and Yurgo. Henry supplemented his meagre income from his work as a fettler on the railways with rabbiting, which also provided food for the family. He also did bag sowing during harvest time on nearby farms. At the same time, Evelyn kept herself incredibly busy caring for and bringing up their children. Evelyn did not adjust very well to life in the Murray Mallee and missed her parents, siblings and mission life in general.

Sadly, this eventually took an awful toll on Henry and Evelyn’s relationship which resulted in them agreeing to separate. Frank was going on 13, and Lawrie about 10, when the family breakdown began. Both boys, along with other siblings, were taken away from their parents by government officials and placed initially in separate children’s homes or fostered out to several families in different locations across the state, including the southeast, Adelaide Hills and in Adelaide itself. During this period Lawrie attended Lefevre Primary School, then Mount Barker High and Croydon Technical High School. Frank went to Lefevre Boys Technical High School and later Oakbank Area School.

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Meanwhile, Lawrie left Croydon Technical High School in November 1964, and worked as a labourer on the railways and in demolition until late 1967. Frank had won a scholarship and trained as a primary school teacher, and after he completed his teacher’s certificate, he was called up for national service with the Army in late 1966. He completed recruit training at Puckapunyal in Victoria and was allocated to the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. He completed corps training as a medical assistant mostly under canvas at Healesville in Victoria in 1967 and was posted to Central Army Medical Records in Albert Park in Melbourne for the remainder of his national service obligation which concluded in 1969.

His brother Frank brother believes Lawrie was probably following in his footsteps when he voluntarily enlisted in the Australian Regular Army in December 1967. Following recruit and infantry training, Lawrie was posted to the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR) in June 1968, which had begun training and preparations to deploy to South Vietnam the following year.

The battalion deployed to South Vietnam in May 1969 and took on two New Zealand rifle companies on arrival, becoming 6 RAR/NZ. Lawrie was posted to Medical Platoon as a stretcher bearer, and was attached to 10 Platoon, Delta Company. During its time in South Vietnam, the battalion undertook nine major operations and 10 Platoon was involved in several successful ambushes and major contacts with the Viet Cong. Three members of 10 Platoon were killed during the tour, with more than half-a-dozen wounded, many of whom Lawrie would have treated prior to medical evacuation. The battalion flew back to Australia in mid-May 1970. Lawrie’s patchy disciplinary record caught up with him on return to Australia, and he was discharged from the army in September 1970. For his service in South Vietnam, Lawrie was issued with the Vietnam Medal and Vietnam Campaign Medal. He was also entitled to wear the Infantry Combat Badge. After Lawrie returned from Vietnam, he and Frank were turned away from an RSL in Adelaide, and neither of them ever forgot it. Lawrie struggled with the effects of his service in Vietnam, and died in tragic circumstances on 21 December 1972, aged 24. After his death, he became eligible to be issued the Australian Active Service Medal 1945-1975 with clasp “Vietnam”.