Edward Franz Hubert FRINGS

Regimental number146
Place of birthCork Harbour, Ireland
SchoolCoantsurth Technical Institute, Ireland
Age on arrival in Australia19
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationAeroplane mechanic
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 11"
Weight160 lbs
Next of kinMrs L Frings, Stewart Road, Wimbledon Park, London, England
Enlistment date21 August 1914
Place of enlistmentSydney, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentSapper
Unit name1st Field Company Engineers
AWM Embarkation Roll number14/20/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board Transport A19 Afric on 18 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollLance Corporal
Unit from Nominal Roll1st Field Company Engineers
FateKilled in Action 26 March 1918
Place of death or woundingWytschaete, Belgium (Battle of Messines)
Age at death24
Age at death from cemetery records24
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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
23
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John Willie and Lily Gertrude FRINGS, Brisk Island, Townsville, Queensland. Native of Spike Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland
Family/military connectionsNil
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 3 March 1915. Admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Lemnos, 7 July 1915 (diarrhoea and haemorrhoids); transferred to 2nd Auxiliary Hospital, Cairo, 17 August 1915; to Overseas Base, Mustapha, 8 September 1915. Embarked fro Gallipoli, 15 September 1915; rejoined unit at Gallipoli, 24 September 1915. Admitted to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, Mudros, 29 October 1915 (diarrhoea); transferred to General Medical Hospital, Gibraltar, 7 November 1915; to England, 23 November 1915, and admitted to Beaufort War Hospital, 28 November 1915.

Proceeded overseas to France, 18 April 1916; rejoined unit, 10 August 1916.

Wounded in action, 18 August 1916 (gun shot wound, shoulder and right arm); admitted to 26th General Hospital, Etaples, 20 August 1916. transferred to England, 7 September 1916, and admitted to Military Hospital, Chatham. Transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 16 October 1916; discharged, 1 November 1916. Marched in to No. 1 Command Depot, 28 December 1916. Found guilty of being absent without leave, noon, 7 January, to 3.30 pm, 10 January 1917: admonished and awarded forfeiture of 4 days' pay. Appointed Acting Sergeant, 29 April 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 25 June 1917. Reverted to Sapper, 26 June 1917. Rejoined unit, 10 July 1917.

Appointed Lance Corporal, 23 November 1917. On leave to England, 21 December 1917; rejoined unit from leave, 5 January 1918. On leave to England, 5 March 1918; rejoined unit from leave, 22 March 1918.

Killed in action, Belgium, 26 March 1918.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, FRINGS Edward Franz Hubert