Francis Murray COLLETT

COLLETT, Francis Murray

Service Numbers: W74223, W74223,
Enlisted: 20 April 1942
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 10th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
Born: Perth, Western Australia, 13 April 1906
Home Town: Narrogin, Narrogin, Western Australia
Schooling: Hale School, Perth, Western Australia
Occupation: Stock Salesman
Died: Esperance, Western Australia, 13 December 1967, aged 61 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Esperance Cemetery
Memorials:
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World War 2 Service

20 Apr 1942: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, W74223, 10th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
27 May 1942: Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, W74223,, 10th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
Date unknown: Enlisted W74223
Date unknown: Discharged W74223

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Private Francis Murray Brown (Service No:W74223) served in the ACMF with 10th Battalion (WA) VDC from 20 April to 27 May 1942 - he had previously been rejected on medical grounds foor service in the AIF and RAAF.

Born in 1906 in Perth WA, Francis was the second of three children of Herbert Brayley Collett (b1877 in Guernsey on the Channel Islands) and Annie Eliza Whitfield (b1879 in Perth, WA). Herbert had immigrated with his parents and siblings in 1884, arriving in Fremantle WA on board the Glen Goil. Herbert (a Librarian) and Annie married in 1904 in Perth WA, where they settled and raised their family and Herbert was a Librarian, Soldier and Politician.

Francis worked for the Agricultural Bank in Newdegate and Northam as an Inspector and Manager and in 1935 in Perth WA married Estella Beatrice Maud Redgrave (b1909 in Melbourne, Victoria). Francis and Estalla were in Narrogin in 1942 - Francis was working as a Stock Salesman - when he enlisted in the ACMF. They moved to Williams where Francis was a Clerk before settling in Perth in the late 1940s where Francis was a Land Valuer and later a Bank Officer. In the early 1960s Francis and Estella had moved to Esperance, where Francis was working as a Bank Officer when he died in 1967. Estella died in 2005.

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