Frederick Eckersley BODDINGTON

Regimental number254
Date of birth5 February 1888
Place of birthMaryborough Queensland
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationArchitect and civil engineer
AddressMackay, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation26
Height5' 6"
Weight135 lbs
Next of kinF W Boddington, Mackay, Queensland
Enlistment date27 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name11th Battalion, Signallers
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/28/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board Transport A11 Ascanius on 2 November 1914
Rank from Nominal RollCaptain
Unit from Nominal Roll11th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularBorn 5 February 1888. Enlisted 27 August 1914 and posted to 11th Bn (regimental no 254). Wounded 1 August 1915. Commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant, 13 December 1915. Transferred to 51st Bn, 1 March 1916. Promoted Captain, 1 April 1916. Transferred to 4th Pioneer Bn, 5 April 1916; to 46th Bn, 30 July 1916.
FateKilled in Action 11 April 1917
Place of death or woundingBullecourt, France
Age at death29
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
141
Family/military connectionsBrother: 3573 Pte George Keith BODDINGTON, 11th Bn, died of wounds, 12 May 1917.
SourcesNAA: B2455, BODDINGTON Frederick Eckersley