Frank Gledhill - Wounded on Two Fronts

By Peter McCullough

The name of Frank Gledhill appears on the Frankston War Memorial. Frank Brewer William Gledhill (Serial Number 33300) was a 25 year old bank clerk in Frankston when he enlisted on 27 October 1916. On 11 May 1917 Driver Gledhill embarked with the Field Artillery Brigade on HMAT Shropshire, arriving in Plymouth in July. In the following month he reverted to ‘Gunner’ at his own request and in September 1917 he ’Marched in ex England’ (to quote the official record), arriving at Rouelles in France on 18 September. There he was part of the Divisional Ammunition Column and proceeded to Belgium.

The Third Battle of Ypres- generally referred to as ‘Passchendaele’was in progress across Belgium at the time. Conditions were so horrific that Frank must have regretted his switch from ‘Driver’ to ‘Gunner’. However his stay was brief as the Casualty Form states that he received a GSW (gun shot wound) on 5 October.

After initial treatment at the Field Hospital in Abbeyville, Frank was placed on the Ambulance Train for the coast and then to hospital in England, initially in London and then at Harefield.

The wound was apparently severe enough to prevent Frank from returning to The Front and on 17 June 1918 he left England on HMAT Matutua. The vessel reached Melbourne on 15 August and Frank was eventually discharged from the AIF in December.

After returning to civilian life Frank resumed his role as a bank clerk, most likely near his residence in Albert Park.

The home front

While Frank was a quietly-spoken, law-abiding citizen, he had a habit which brought him into conflict with the powers-that-be: he liked to play a bit of beach cricket wearing only his bathers!

In January 1929 the Melbourne Argus reported:

Frank Gledhill, Danks street, Albert Park, was charged before Mr J Baragwanath, JP at the South Melbourne Court on Friday with having loitered on the beach at South Melbourne while clothed in a bathing costume.

Inspector Anderson of South Melbourne, said: On December 10 Gledhill was playing on the beach. I had warned him on other occasions against playing cricket there, as a number of complaints regarding this practice had been made.

Gledhill said:- I was having a game with a piece of wood and a soft ball.

Mr. Baragwanath said:- Many other seaside councils are lax in regard to keeping the beach clear of this sort of thing. The South Melbourne Council is to be commended in this regard.

A fine of 10/- was imposed.

It appears that the Council by-laws along our beachfronts varied as to what was allowed on the beach. In 1926 a deputation protested against the restrictions that existed in Williamstown. The existing regulation, adopted in 1880, read: “No person over the age of ten years, clothed in a bathing costume, shall sit, lie, loiter, or play games on, or run along the foreshore, but shall, on leaving the dressing sheds for the water, proceed in a direct line, and on leaving the water shall return in a direct line to the dressing sheds.” The deputation asked that the words requiring a bather to walk in a direct line from the dressing shed to the water be deleted as unreasonable and impossible as far as the men were concerned.

Most Council by-laws stressed that no games such as cricket or handball were allowed on the beach owing to the mishaps which had happened to young children and others, that the ladies be allowed free access to the water, and that no male bather was permitted within fifteen yards of the ladies’ dressing shelter. It wasn’t until many years later that these restrictions were abandoned.

There is no recorded description of Frank’s bathers when he caused offence at South Melbourne beach on that December day in 1928; were they of the neck-to-knee variety or had Frank thrown caution to the winds and progressed to simply shorts? Whichever, they would certainly have borne little resemblance to the budgie smugglers of modern times.

Frank Gledhill never married. After his widowed mother died in 1946 he and his brother went to live in her house in Inkerman Street, Caulfield. Frank died on 23 June 1953, aged 62 years, and is buried in the Victorian Garden of Remembrance at Springvale. Although he had requested that his role at The Front should be ‘Gunner’ as opposed to ‘Driver’, the army had difficulty coming to terms with this change and most of his subsequent correspondence with the AIF was addressed to ‘Driver Gledhill’. Even on the plaque in the Garden of Remembrance he is ‘Driver F. B. W. Gledhill.’

The debris lined road through Chateau Wood to Westhoek Ridge, in the Ypres sector. An unidentified soldier runs across the road between two abandoned limbers and piles of wood (AWM E01233)

Passchendaele

The Battle of Passchendaele has shaped perceptions of the Western Front. Fought between July and November 1917, both sides suffered heavy casualties and endured appalling conditions. ‘Passchendaele’ became synonymous with mud, blood and futility.

In 1917 General Haig planned a major offensive, hoping for a war-winning breakthrough. He planned to capture the high ground around Ypres, as well as a key rail junction to the east, and then advance on the German occupied ports on the Belgian coast which were critical to Germany’s U-boat campaign.

Conditions were horrific as the region was largely made up of low, flat ground that was kept dry only with the help of an intricate series of dykes and ditches. After three years of heavy fighting these drainage systems were totally destroyed and the ground, churned up by millions of artillery shells, was reduced to sticky mud.

The battle failed to achieve Haig’s objectives; it lasted for nearly five months and in that time the Allies advanced about five miles (8km) for the loss of over 250,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing. This included 38,000 members of the AIF, two of whom (Captain Clarence Jefferies and Sergeant Lewis McGee) were posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry. German casualties were estimated at 220,000 making this one of the war’s most costly battles of attrition.

Footnote:

This story is an expanded version of one written by Val Latimer which appeared in the February 2025 edition of ‘Peninsula Past Times’ , the journal of the Mornington Peninsula Family History Society. Thanks to Kevin Hillier (President of Frankston RSL) and Peter Beckett for their assistance.