| Regimental number | 2154 |
| Place of birth | Darlington, New South Wales |
| Other Names | FRANZEN |
| School | Marist Brothers Catholic School, North Sydney |
| Other training | Student at Government Farm, Wagga Wagga |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Boundary rider |
| Address | Miranda via Sutherland, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 28 |
| Height | 5' 6.5" |
| Weight | 138 lbs |
| Next of kin | Mother, Ms A E Franzan, Miranda via Sutherland, New South Wales |
| Previous military service | Served in the St George's Rifles in Sydney, 1902. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 13th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/30/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A62 Wandilla on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Company Quartermaster Sergeant |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 13th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Polygon Wood, Ypres, Belgium |
| Age at death | 33 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 30 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 69 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Seth Abraham and Annie Elizabeth FRANZEN, Sydney, New South Wales |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front Joined unit at Gallipoli, 2 August 1915. Admitted to 4th Australian Field Ambulance, 1 September 1915 (diarrhoea); rejoined Bn, 5 September 1915.Disembarked Mudros en route to Alexandria, 27 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation). Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 1 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 8 June 1916. Appointed Temporary Corporal, 24 August 1916; Acting Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 15 October 1916; Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 24 October 1916. Admitted to 13th Australian Field Ambulance, 30 April 1917, and transferred to 1st Anzac Scabies Station; rejoined unit, 8 May 1917. Killed in action, 25 September 1917. Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal His father, Seth A FRANZEN, wrote to Base Records, 3 October 1928, seeking details of his son's grave: 'I copy herewith part of [a] report from the Red Cross Society, written to them by C.Q.M. Sergeant Clay, C Coy, 13th Bn, who was present when my son was killed: "We buried him next morning under heavy shell fire, in a shell hole right behind our Battalion Headquarters at Polygon Wood. A small cross was put over the grave, and his name put on it in indelible pencil." As the Germans, after that time made advance, probably the grave and cross would have been demolished by shell fire, but even so I hope the body was found for reburial. Could you kindly enlighten me about it.' Base Records replied, 16 October 1928, 'As stated in your letter the neighborhood of Polygon Wood was repeatedly the scene of heavy fighting about the time of your son's death, and in the absence of any official report of grave registration it must be reluctantly concluded that the original surface markings were entirely obliterated by shell fire thereby rendering identification impossible.' |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
