A century on from the end of World War I we acknowledge their service …
Lest we forget.
Private Frank Bertram Doyle
Born: 11 January 1896 Mt Doran. Died of wounds: 16 December 1916 England.
Enlisted: 15 July 1915 aged 19
Served: Egypt and Western Front
Frank was one of John and Georgina Doyle’s eight children. In 1907, his older brother John settled at Hillview in Pakenham Upper and was later joined by Georgina and some of the other children.
When he enlisted in July 1915, Frank was working at the Melbourne Sports Depot and was described in the local press as “very popular”. His friends at Upper Pakenham organised a special social evening to wish him “God Speed”.
Frank departed Melbourne for Egypt just a few days after Christmas 1915 and he was eventually send to France.
In July, his battalion was shifted to Pozieres, where it took part in its first major battle on the Western Front.
In a letter home, he described it as “being like a nightmare… we were shelled without mercy the whole day long”.
Frank was later wounded in the field – a compound fracture to the right thigh.
He was sent onto the University Hospital in Southampton, England, where his right leg was amputated, but gangrene set in and he died on 16 December 1916, just short of a year after he left Australia.
This is an extract from Patrick Ferry’s book A Century After The Guns Fell Silent – Remembering the Pakenham District’s WWI Diggers 1914-18.
For more details on this and other profiles in the book, head to the website www.pakenhamww1.com
