Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Francois Bertout

LCpl 5217 Frank Raymond James,
3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, C Company,
1st Brigade, 1st Australian Division
 
Through the fields of the Somme, in the silence of the poppies bathed in light, stand row after row, the countless graves of a whole generation of men who, united forever in camaraderie and fraternity, rest in peace on these sacred grounds on which they fought with determination alongside their comrades in the trenches, in the blood and mud of the battlefields on which was lost all a youth who, with conviction and courage faced barbed wire and machine guns but who, despite the horrors, fury and brutality stood firm to preserve peace and freedom under the bullets and shells that decimated so many souls whose innocence was sacrificed and buried under the fatal symphony of shells, devastating artillery but despite this hell on earth, watching over each other, these young men went over the top and charged bayonets forward to give us a tomorrow, a better world and together the, preserve what is best in each of us, our humanity. They were young and loved, they were Australian, British, Scottish, Canadian,French, but above all they were men who came together for the same fight, for the same causes and who, side by side, lived and died to save our country who will be forever grateful to them and for them who gave their lives, I would give them mine to honor each day the memory of these heroes whose sacrifices will never be forgotten, so that their courage and their names live forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today for our tomorrow.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Lance Corporal number 5217 Frank Raymond James who fought in the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion,C Company, 1st Brigade, 1st Australian Division, and who died of his wounds 106 years ago, on November 8, 1916 at the age of 20 during the Battle of the Somme.

Frank Raymond James was born in 1896 in Lindfield, New South Wales, and was the son of Horace Charles and Mary Ann James, of Ridge Street, Gordon, New South Wales. He was educated at Gordon Public School and before the outbreak of the war, worked as a labourer employed by the Water and Sewerage Board.

James enlisted on January 10, 1916 at Liverpool, New South Wales, as a Private in the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, C Company. The 3rd Battalion was raised in 1914 at Liverpool, south west of Sydney.Its men were drawn from southern New South Wales, Goulburn, Yass and down to Albury and across to Hay in the West. It departed Australia in October 1914. After a training period of just over two months, Frank embarked with his unit from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT SS Makarini on April 1, 1916 and sailed for Egypt.

On May 2, 1916, Frank arrived in Egypt and was disembarked at Suez where the 3rd Battalion joined the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) and were sent to England in early June. Two weeks later, on June 15, 1916, while Frank was completing his training At Perham Downs, on Salisbury Plain, he was severely reprimanded for insolence towards a Non-Commissioned Officer. Despite this incident, he completed his training period and proceeded overseas for France on August 10, 1916.

On August 11, 1916, after a short trip on the English Channel, Frank arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples where he joined the 1st Australian Divisional Base Depot and was taken in strength in the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion on August 22 at Warloy-Baillon, in the Somme, where the Battalion was billeted then the next day, marched for Val-De-Maison, near Talmas, Gezaincourt and arrived at Doullens on August 26 from where they embarked by train for Poperinge, in the Ypres salient where they arrived the next day then moved to Toronto Camp where the battalion was involved in combat exercises including attacks on trenches, anti-gas exercises alongside the men of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers then on August 31, despite some fire from the German artillery, embarked by train at Brandhoek railway station for Ypres.

On September 1, 1916, Frank and the 3rd Battalion arrived at Railway Dugouts and on the same day relieved the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the right sector of Hill 60, between Ypres and Menin and had to face very heavy fire from artillery, mortars but also snipers and the men of the 3rd Battalion had to consolidate and fortify their destroyed trenches day and night. The Australian snipers were also very active and very effective in this sector and after a week of combat, the 3rd Battalion was relieved by the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion on September 7 then marched to their billets at "Battersea Farm", near Ypres where they remained until September 11.

On September 12, 1916, Frank and the 3rd Battalion embarked by train at "Ypres Asylum" railway station and moved back to Brandoek then marched to Dominion Camp where they arrived at 4:00 p.m., followed by a period of rest, reorganization and exercises. The men of the 3rd Battalion appreciated this deserved rest period and received new, clean uniforms and sterilized and warm blankets to sleep in, but also had hot baths and hot food. They also received new rifles and new gas masks which were put into practice during special exercises. Musical concerts were also organized to maintain good morale and good humor and it is easy to imagine how pleasant it must have been for Frank and his comrades after a trying stay in the mud of the battlefields but on September 25 they left the Dominion Camp and returned to the trenches of Ypres where they relieved the 4th Australian Infantry Battalion in a position called "Swan Chateau" under the fire of German artillery and airplanes but had the support of the "extremely active support of Australian artillery and Allied airplanes which destroyed several observation balloons " then on October 13, the battalion moved back to Dominion Camp.

On October 14, 1916, the 3rd Battalion left Dominion Camp and marched for Arneke then for Ouestmont where Frank was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal on October 19 then on October 20, the battalion received the order to move for the Somme and arrived at Longpré the next day. On October 23 they marched to Fricourt Camp and then to Mametz Wood the following day where they underwent a period of training until October 28. On October 29 they marched to the front line at Trones Wood, relieved the 16th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment in heavy rain then in the night, moved on the right flank of Trones Wood, in Flers and relieved the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion then on November 1st, the B and D Company of the 3rd Battalion dug new positions on the no man's land they improved the following days with the support of Australian artillery.

On November 4, 1916, the 3rd Battalion received orders for the following day to attack an extremely fortified German trench system called "The Maze" and the battalion's objective was to take and hold a portion of German trench called "Bayonet Trench". On November 5 at 00:30am, Frank and his comrades assembled in their starting trenches with the support of the 1st Battalion but the attack was launched in catastrophic conditions, in a wet, sticky and thick mud which slowed the Australians on the no man's land and were mowed down by enemy machine gun fire and had to fall back to their lines.

Despite the failure of this attack, Frank survived but his luck deserted him and two days later, on November 7, 1916, he met his fate and while the battalion was relieved and moved back to Trones Wood, he was mortally wounded by multiple shrapnel and immediately evacuated to the 36th Casualty Clearing Station located in Mericourt-l'Abbé, Somme, where he died of his wounds the following day,on November 8, 1916, he was only 20 years old.

Today, Lance Corporal Frank Raymond James rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-l'Abbé, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "He sleeps far away in a hero's grave for his country he did fall."

Frank had two brothers who fought in the Great War but so did his father.

Frank's first brother was Private Edward Charles James who served with the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company. Edward survived the war and returned to Australia on April 5, 1919. He died peacefully on July 11, 1975 at the age of 81 and is now resting in peace at Palmdale Lawn Cemetery And Memorial Park, Palmdale, Central Coast Council, New South Wales, Australia.

Frank's second brother was Able Seaman number 4462 Cecil Gordon James who served on the Tingara, London Depot, Sydney, Warrego, Encounter, Brisbane and Adelaide. He was discharged on June 20, 1925.
Frank's father, Private number 5796 Horace Charles James served with the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion but was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force on 21 January 1918 (permanently unfit for General Service), to become an Australian Munitions Worker, England, and died on August 25, 1930.

Frank, proud and determined, courageous and confident, it was in the prime of your life that you answered the call of duty with the ardor of an unfailing faith to join the ranks of a united army, of brave men who left behind the safety and love of their homes, of their loved ones to fight in the mud of the trenches in which their innocence was swept away but animated by an unstoppable resolution, under the shells and the bullets they held the front line and in France fought like lions whose courage was never broken despite the horrors, the sufferings and the pains they endured, but found in each other, the support, the strength and the courage to fight, they watched over each other and found comfort in the brotherhood and friendship that united them and brought honor to the ANZAC spirit, they made Australia proud, whose bravery, determination and endurance were put to the test in the barbed wire of the Somme through which so many young Diggers fell but by their courage brought the light of hope into the hearts of the French people for whom they fought so hard in the fields of blood red poppies in which their brothers and friends fell under infernal rains of bullets.In the cold, with their knees deep in the mud, they witnessed a world that descended into madness and saw powerless, their mates who were swept away by storms of fire and shells whose shrapnel crushed, disfigured, mutilated young men who, in howls of agony and tears of despair asked their friends in this chaos to end their sufferings but loyal to each other, they crossed no man's land to save them from this hell that was the Somme and showed extreme bravery regardless of their own lives in the face of death so that others could live, so that peace and freedom triumph over the darkness of the battlefields which were no more than fields of death on which almost any attack was suicidal but despite the fear of death, these young men went over the top because they knew they were fighting the good fight, they knew they risked not to return home but to give their life for what was right was worth all the effort and all the sacrifice.In Pozieres, Australia began its march for freedom, a fight that was fought first on the blood red beaches of Gallipoli where was born the spirit of courage that still characterizes the Australian soldiers who fought and endured the battles which were among the deadliest of the great war and left behind them, in the hills of Lone Pine, thousands of them whose lives were lost in heroic charges.Decimated, haunted by death, they never lost their fighting spirit and after Turkey, they experienced the brutality, the absolute fury of the western front where on July 19 at Fromelles, once again in the front line, they charged in what was the hell of Fromelles, of what was the worst 24 hours in the history of the Australian Imperial Force and were almost completely annihilated but nevertheless they continued to move forward to the burning cauldron of Pozieres where 23 000 young Diggers fell in less than seven weeks but they did not back down.Together, all volunteers they gave their today and finally, after so many sacrifices and lives lost in the mud, in 1918 in Villers-Bretonneux, Le Hamel and Amiens they stopped the German army and heard the bells of peace ringing across the whole of the Somme where so many of their comrades and brothers in arms rest today in peace behind their immaculate white graves on which I would watch forever to perpetuate their memory, to tell the stories of these heroes who for Australia and France gave their lives.Gone but not and never forgotten, I will always watch over them so that their names live on forever, to express France's eternal gratitude to Australia to whom we owe so much, a gratitude that was first expressed through the words of George Clemenceau to Sir John Monash and the Australian troops on July 7, 1918, words that I think of every day of my life:

"When the Australians came to France, the French people expected a great deal of you.We knew that you would fight a real fight, but we did not know that from the very beginning you would astonish the whole continent. I shall go back tomorrow and say to my countrymen, I have seen the Australians, I have looked in their faces, I know that these men will fight alongside of us again until the cause for which we are all fighting is safe for us and for our children."

Thank you so much Frank, for everything. At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him, we will remember them.