Frederick Clifford ALLINGHAM

ALLINGHAM, Frederick Clifford

Service Numbers: 372, 489
Enlisted: 18 July 1914, Broadmeadows, Vic.
Last Rank: Corporal
Last Unit: 3rd Field Company Engineers
Born: Golden Square, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, 1890
Home Town: Epsom, Greater Bendigo, Victoria
Schooling: Golden Square and Huntly State Schools, Victoria
Occupation: Land and mining surveyor
Died: Killed in Action, Albert, France, 20 July 1916
Cemetery: Becourt Military Cemetery
Plot I, Row T, Grave 16, Becourt Military Cemetery, Albert, Picardie, France
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Bendigo Great War Roll of Honor
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World War 1 Service

18 Jul 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 372, 4th Light Horse Regiment, Broadmeadows, Vic.
19 Oct 1914: Involvement Private, 372, 4th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wiltshire embarkation_ship_number: A18 public_note: ''
19 Oct 1914: Embarked Private, 372, 4th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Wiltshire, Melbourne
22 May 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 372, 4th Light Horse Regiment, ANZAC / Gallipoli
6 Aug 1915: Transferred AIF WW1, Sapper, 3rd Field Company Engineers, Gallipoli
8 Aug 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Sapper, 489, 3rd Field Company Engineers, The August Offensive - Lone Pine, Suvla Bay, Sari Bair, The Nek and Hill 60 - Gallipoli
3 Sep 1915: Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 3rd Field Company Engineers, Gallipoli
1 Mar 1916: Promoted AIF WW1, Second Corporal, 3rd Field Company Engineers, Egypt
12 Mar 1916: Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 3rd Field Company Engineers, Egypt
20 Jul 1916: Involvement Corporal, 489, 3rd Field Company Engineers, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 489 awm_unit: 3rd Field Company, Australian Engineers awm_rank: Corporal awm_died_date: 1916-07-20

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Biography contributed by Larna Malone

Frederick Clifford Allingham was born in 1890 in Golden Square, Sandhurst (i.e. Bendigo), the 2nd born child of John Locke Allingham and Jessie Allen.   The family lived in Golden Square, where John Locke Allingham was a Storekeeper and Accountant.   Frederick Clifford Allingham attended Golden Square State School and Golden Square Methodist Church.

In 1896 his father purchased a property on the main Murray road in Epsom and commenced operations as an orchardist.   He continued working as an Accountant and became Company Secretary of the Bendigo Pottery Company.   He was also a Methodist Lay Preacher.     Frederick Clifford Allingham attended the Epsom Methodist Sunday School.   In later years he was a Rechabite and became a member of the Pride of the Hills, I.O.R., White Hills.

As a youth he attended Huntly State School, where he was registered under the name Clifford Allingham.   In later years he preferred to be known as 'Fred'.

At the age of 15 he joined the Senior Cadets as a member of 4th Light Horse Troop.   Later, he held the rank of Quartermaster Sergeant.   In 1909 he became a member of the 17th (Campaspe Valley) Light Horse Regiment.

In 1911 he began a 4-year Apprenticeship with Mr John R. Clark, Government Mining Surveyor, of Bendigo.   He was also enrolled at the Bendigo School of Mines.   In 1913 the Pottery Company transferred his father to Melbourne and the family began a move to Box Hill.  'Fred' Allingham moved into Bendigo and continued his studies and his apprenticeship.

Frederick Clifford Allingham had completed his apprenticeship when he volunteered for service in the AIEF.   He was one of the first men from the Bendigo district to enlist at Broadmeadows Camp on 18th August, 1914.   He was appointed to 'C' Squadron of 4th Regiment Light Horse and allotted Service No. 372.

He embarked for overseas on 19th October, 1914, per HMAT Wiltshire, as part part of the 1st Convoy to leave Australia.   He disembarked in Egypt on 10th December, 1914.   Whilst in Egypt he filled the post of orderly and assistant to the Quarter Master Sgt.   The 4th Regiment Light Horse was deployed to the Gallipoli campaign without horses, landing on 22nd May, 1915, and serving as infantry.

On 7th August, 1915, Frederick Clifford Allingham was transferred to 3rd Field Company Engineers.   He was appointed Sapper and allotted the new Service No. 489.   He was promoted to L/Cpl on 3/9/15, and to T/2/Cpl on 21/12/15.   The Anzac position was evacuated during December and 3rd Field Coy Engineers disembarked at Alexandria, Egypt, on 27th December.     On 1/3/16 Frederick Clifford Allingham was promoted to Permanent 2nd Cpl, and, shortly after was promoted to Cpl. (12/3/16)   On 27/3/16 he embarked for France to join the British Expeditionary Force. 

Corporal Frederick Clifford Allingham was K.I.A. on 20th July, 1916, when 3rd Field Company Engineers were working on the lines around Pozieres in preparation for a planned Australian attack.   He was Buried in the Becourt Military Cemetery, Becordel-Bercourt, about 2k east of Albert, France.   Grave Location I  T  16

The inscription on his gravestone reflects his strong Methodist upbringing.           FULL WELL WE KNOW       

                                                                                                                     WHERE'ER THEY BE

                                                                                                                     OUR DEAD ARE LIVING

                                                                                                                     UNTO THEE.

In a letter to his father, John Locke Allingham, Major C. A. Courtney, C/O of 'C' Squadron, 4th Regiment Light Horse, wrote: "I ask you to accept my heartfelt sorrow as a tribute to your son's memory.   I had ample opportunity to appreciate his fine character and keen soldierly qualities.   He was especially valuable to me all through Mena and on Gallipoli, and I thought his special ability would find greater scope in the Engineers.   I therefore advised him to transfer.   After he left us he was still working in the same trenches, and was always in good spirits and had earned the confidence and respect of his new mates . . . .  he was one of the many fine characters that set many capable officers thinking, 'Am I fit to lead such men'.   I mourn him as a personal friend, and so will all the Squadron officers.   He was one of the best types of the men of Anzac."                                                                                                                         [Bendigonian.  15 March, 1917]

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