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Australia

Francis, known as Frank, was born in Mount Perry, Queensland on the 5th May 1905 to John Lathern and Anna Wilhemina Pearson. This was a successful copper mining town at the time and was linked to Bundaberg via a train line. However, the town collapsed when the mine closed at the start of WWI. The family moved to South Australia where they initially lived in the Copper triangle area of Kadina where Robert Stephen (Bob) was born in 1902. Frank was the second son, also having a sister, Edith Adelaide. Their father was the manager of Wallaroo Mines with the children attending the local Kadina School.
Frank was ten when Bob enlisted in the RANC in 1916. Bob continued to serve in numerous ships as a specialist physical trainer and served throughout WWII.
In contrast, Frank’s passion was for Agriculture. This continued to grow whilst he was a student at Scotch College. Resultantly, as a sixteen-year-old, he was awarded one of six Government Scholarship in March ’22 to attend Roseworthy Agricultural College. At the conclusion of his studies, he was ranked fourth overall with a percentage of 81.47 and honours in four subjects, dairying, surveying, aviculture, and wool-classing, thus qualifying for a diploma of the first class and second class.
Frank and the family had moved to live in Angle Vale where he became a share farmer. However, with the outbreak of WWII 35-year-old Frank was one of the early enlistees in Adelaide on the 29th June 1940 where he was given the number SX7056, then allocated to the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. In Gawler in October a Valedictory evening was held in the Forester’s Hall where Frank was one of six enlistees who were honoured. Four of these men were also from the 2/48th Battalion, including Captain Donald Dawkins SX10192, six-foot-tall Albert William Squire, SX7930, known as ‘Tiny’ and Laurence Day SX6659. The fifth soldier was Noel Johnstone SX4174 in the 2/7th. The Mayor and other speakers from the RSL and Council spoke in praise of the young men before each soldier was given gifts of wallets and pencils with which to write home.
He sailed on the on the Stratheden on the 7th November 1940, arriving on the 19th December 1940 where the Battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica. Frank was promoted early to the role of Acting Corporal in November whilst for the Middle East, this despite being absent for three hours on the voyage from Australia. Hewas fortunate to escape with a reprimand, which fortunately did not affect his promotional chances as he became a Corporal in January the following year.
During those early days, the battalion settled into camps, but besides regular army duties was the need to quickly adapt to the locals. The new soldiers were soon involved in intense conflicts where the reputation of the 2/48th Battalion for being the most highly decorated but decimated battalion was earned. Frank was to become one of the famed Rats of Tobruk.
Soon after arriving, in April pamphlets were dropped, encouraging the troops to ‘surrender their arms’, a suggestion derided by the men. In a morning sighting of three large vehicles and a motor cycle, A Company held their fire until the approaching enemy was well within range. In typical laconic style, Don Flanegan suggested “Come on, Anzac, let’s do them over.” A Company did, leaving one truck in flames and hitting the motor bike before the remainder fled, leaving their wounded behind. A little later a motor bike rider approached the wire in front of Post S1. Jack Hanley described how “Corporal Frank Person slowly walked over to investigate. To the surprise of both, they found they were on opposite sides. Without wasting time, the Italian visitor hopped on his bike and made world time to the rise some 600 yards away, no doubt spurred to the greatest effort by our anti-tank gun, which kept dropping shells some ten yards behind him and never seemed to improve a yard. Whether the last shell finally scored a hit or whether the rider had lost faith in the speed of his machine is hard to say, but the last seen of him was when he hot-footed it over the rise in a cloud of dust.”
That month, fortune continued to be on Frank’s side as he sustained a shrapnel wound to his chest and gunshot wound to his back, causing him to be hospitalised for a month. Time was then spent at the Amiriya Staging Camp.
The Chronicle shared the news back home in May, listing others from the 2/48th who were either killed or wounded at a similar time. Second List Killed in Action— Pte. George H. Dickinson, SX7649, Inf., Peterborough; Pte. Wallace E. Dunn, SX6958, Inf., place not given; Pte. Edward G. Hextall, SX8285, Inf., Auburn; Pte. Frederick MacNamara, SX7418, Inf., Kingston;; Pte. Colin S. Tucker, SX8578, Inf., Redfern; Pte. Lionel H. Van Den. Brink, SX7279, Inf., Richmond. Died of Wounds.— Pte. Kenneth A. Barry, SX7575, Inf., Adelaide. Wounded in Action. — Pte. Robert T. Christie, SX8273, Inf., Angaston; Pte. Ronald G. Daniels, SX7863, Inf., Rosewater Gardens; Pte. Charles S. Deering, SX77O2, Inf., Alberton; Sgt. Jack W. Hanley, SX7129, Inf., Grassmere Pte. Ray B. Lovelock, SX7399, Inf., Karoonda; Cpl. F. B. Pearson, SX7056, Inf., Kilkenny; Pte. Angus R. Sara, SX9334, Inf., Ethelton; Pte. Ronald A. Small, SX7891, Inf., Redfern.
Early the following year Frank attended a Grenade Course, during which he was appointed as Lance Sergeant before returning to his original Battalion. A report on his ability to impart knowledge described Frank as being ‘a useful instructor and worked hard, capable of teaching these weapons in any unit.’
Desert conditions contributed to Frank contracting tonsilitis before he was again back with the 2/48th. By November ’42 Frank received a gunshot wound to his face which forced him to recuperate whist being medically classified as ‘temporarily unfit for service’. The wound proved to be quite complex with a fracture to the right side of his lower jaw. This also caused partial loss of his vision on that side. The December issue of the Chronicle again listed him as being wounded in action.
As Frank had attended the Kadina High School before going to Scotch College, his injury was noted in the Kadina and Wallaroo Times. The school closely followed the involvement of old scholars, especially those who were wounded. The publication added that Frank had since recovered and was back in action.
By January ’43 Frank’s gallantry in action was recognised and he was awarded a commendation. Because of his injury, Frank returned from the Middle East to Adelaide where The Advertiser welcomed and interviewed a number of wounded men who arrived on the hospital ship, lauding their efforts for driving ‘Rommel out of Egypt and across the Libyan desert’. The men praised the Comforts Fund, Red Cross and other organisations for their work during the campaign. Frank was one of the returnees who was interviewed. ‘Sgt. F. B. Pearson, who received shell wounds in the face at El Alamein, said that very few comprehended the size of the great offensive. Captured Germans who had come from Russia said they had seen nothing like it.’
Fellow 2/48th soldier 21-year-old Frank (Bob) Kennedy SX7092, winner of the DCM was also interviewed. He ‘was I8 when he left Halbury, near Balaklava. where he was working as a farm labourer, to enlist, and he has been in the Middle East ever since. He was in the siege and relief of Tobruk and can look back with a smile upon the way the Australians "got away with that job" with little equipment and much bluff. El Alamein where he was wounded, was different. He has a letter of congratulation from Lt-Gen. L. J. Morshead for the gallant conduct which won him the DCM.
Back home in Angle Vale in March that year, a games evening and Paddy's market was held in the local Hall with the funds being donated to Fighting Forces Comforts Fund. At the presentation, a hearty welcome was given to Sergeant Frank Pearson who was home on leave after 2 years in the Middle East. Frank was fortunate to survive the war, being discharged in September that year.
Frank and his wife, Iris Winifred Brooke moved to live in Karoonda where they welcomed the arrival of their two sons. Frank had returned to his pre-war work, becoming a highly respected District Agricultural Adviser for the Murray Mallee. He was also an informative speaker, drawing on his experiences of agricultural practices witnessed in Palestine, Syria and through the Jordon Valley. Whilst living in Karoonda, he addressed the Nunkeri Agricultural branch with his detailed observations which were frequently illustrated by the photos taken whilst posted there. Frank explained that some primitive methods were still in existence, including the old wooden plough, the old system of tramping and flailing out wheat and winnowing with a dish or pan, the shearing of sheep, where 5 or 6 persons would hold the sheep down while 1 or 2 would be cutting the wool off with scissors. The Murray Pioneer reported that with ‘water carrying, Mr. Pearson told of one village well which was l½ miles from the village. Girls from 12 to 14 years of age would carry 3 to 3½ gallons of water on their heads and do 4 trips a day. When they reached 14 or 15 years of age, they became married and that terminated their water carrying. The audience was shown a water wheel 80 feet in diameter, which worked for 600 years, but has not worked for the last 1,400 years, and the oldest known cedar tree which still stands in the garden of Gettsemane.’
Frank had quickly become involved in the local Karoonda Cricket Club, until he was transferred and promoted to Mount Gambier at the end of ’49. Similarly, Iris was particularly active on the Women's Hospital Auxiliary. The family were farewelled by the Karoonda RSL and local agriculturalists at an evening social, with the Club praising Frank for his willingness to volunteer whenever work was to be done. He had been lauded for the manner in which he undertook the roles of Vice President and member of the executive committee, often offering sound counsel when problems arose. Frank was also warmly farewelled by the Nunkeri branch of the Agricultural Bureau, with other nearby branches of Yurgo and Wynarka also attending the farewell. Again, Frank’s ability and devotion to duty were praised and the community expressed their regret at Frank’s departure. Frank was given an envelope as part of the thanks for his outstanding work. He concluded the evening with a short address on the loss of sheep, through quite preventable causes. An added bonus of the transfer for Frank and his family, was the opportunity to secure a suitable house at the Mount. Frank, however assured the locals that he would be back in the region to judge crops in the Mallee area competitions.
Once based in Mount Gambier, Frank continued to judge crops including at the Millicent Show in November ’49. During the following decade a concerted push was made to eliminate the rabbit plague which continued to decimate farming areas. Stocks of freeze-dried myxomatosis virus was part of a State-wide distribution to landholders. Frank urged farmers to also continue with their current measures, believing that the use of the virus would be just one of several useful control measures. This was proved to be correct. Similarly, as District Agricultural Adviser in the South East, he was at the forefront in eliminating noxious weeds in the area. He believed the weeds were brought in via aerial seeding and were further spread by road construction gangs using dirt from weed infested areas. He also worked to combat the red-legged earth mite which had also reached plague proportions in the area and fully supported the council’s purchase of a boom spray to assist farmers eradicate problems.
By ’55 Frank and the family returned to live in Adelaide where Frank was the Senior Agricultural Adviser. He was also a passionate proponent of dairy farmers making Silage to conserve feed for their stock maintaining that is was a cheap and effective way of improving milk production during the summer - autumn period. He also gave advice on when preparation should be made for summer fodder crops, with areas selected and grazed down to allowed for seedbed preparation and weed kills. He also gave advice on how to identify and treat cutworms which caused widespread damage to pastures and cereal crops. The threat of bushfires was also addressed in thin pasture areas and with farmers being behind schedule with creating firebreaks.
At a Roseworthy Old Collegians Reunion in ’59, Frank as Department of Agriculture Chief Agricultural Adviser, gave an illustrated speech on Eight-Mile Creek in the South-East. By ’65 Frank was again promoted from Principal Agronomist with the SA Department of Agriculture to Chief Agronomist. He continued to be passionate about the land and farming practices, travelling to Yeelanna to address questions that were affecting local Eyre Peninsula farmers and graziers. Frank also rejoiced when local Eyre Peninsula farmers recovered from a mouse plague to produce a high yield of grain crops, but he warned of correctly storing the grain to prevent rust damage.
Frank’s professional and generous service was formally acknowledged in the Queen’s Honour list of May ’68 when he received an Order of the British empire (OBE) in recognition of his selfless work as Chief Agronomist, Department of Agriculture.
Aged 75, Frank died on the 25th February ’81 at Modbury. He was buried in the Enfield Memorial Park Cemetery, Eastern niche wall Number 1 OA -OU 16-1. The inscription on his plaque reads ‘At Rest After a Life Fulfilled’.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.