VENABLES, George Frank
| Service Number: | 2268 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 18 March 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 47th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Redbank, Queensland, Australia, 5 November 1892 |
| Home Town: | Ingham, Hinchinbrook, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Ravenswood State School, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Cane farmer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 5 April 1918, aged 25 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 18 Mar 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2268, 47th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug 1916: | Involvement Private, 2268, 47th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Boorara embarkation_ship_number: A42 public_note: '' | |
| 16 Aug 1916: | Embarked Private, 2268, 47th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Boorara, Brisbane |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
George Frank Venables was a cane farmer from Ingham Queensland when he enlisted in the 47th Battalion. He was wounded in action at Messines during June 1917, a gunshot wound in the left arm and evacuated to England. He rejoined his battalion in France about three months later. For his actions on 28 March 1918, during the great German offensive, Venables was awarded a Military Medal for his consistent good work and devotion to duty as a runner near Dernancourt, when he repeatedly went through heavy shell and machine gun fire whilst carrying messages backwards and forwards from the front line. At one stage during the German attack, he took charge of an isolated party and inflicted damage on the enemy, then resuming his normal work. He was killed in action only eight days later, at the same place.
His older brother, Harold John Venables had served with the 2nd Queensland Mounted Infantry during the Boer War, and had stayed on in South Africa. He travelled to England from South Africa and enlisted for WW1 in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. Rifleman Harold J. Venables served right through WW1 and died in England of pneumatic influenza on 22 February 1919.