The AIF Project

Frederick John CANNON

Regimental number2295
Place of birthMount Misery, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationMiner
AddressKurri Kurri, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation18
Next of kinFather, Chas. Cannon, Brunker Street, Kurri Kurri, New South Wales
Previous military service14th Infantry
Enlistment date30 August 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll13 September 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name31st Battalion, 4th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/48/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A68 Anchises on 14 March 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll31st Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularEnlisted 30 August 1915 - 31st Bn 4th Reinforcements; taken on stength 31st Bn 23 July 1915; shellshocked 3 November 1916 Somme; wounded 2 April 1917.
FateKilled in Action 29 September 1919
Place of death or woundingHindenburg Line
Age at death21
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
118

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