Next of kin plaque: Private Frank de Winton Anderson, 14th Field Ambulance, AIF

Places
Accession Number REL48518
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Heraldry
Physical description Bronze
Maker Royal Air Force
Royal Arsenal Woolwich
Place made United Kingdom: England
Date made 1922
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'FRANK DE WINTON ANDERSON'.

History / Summary

Born at Port Elliston, South Australia, Frank de Winton Anderson was employed as a clerk in the Railway Traffic Superintendent's Office in Adelaide when he enlisted in the AIF on 23 April 1915. After initial training as a medical orderly he was posted a private, service number 4703, to the 3rd Australian General Hospital. He embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT A62 Wandilla on 15 June. Anderson served on Lemnos island in the Mediterranean tending the wounded and sick from Gallipoli until the hospital was withdrawn to Egypt in January 1916. He transferred to 14th Field Ambulance on 12 May, a month before the unit transferred to France.

On 3 May 1917, during the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Anderson suffered a gun or shrapnel wound to his back. He was evacuated to the 6th Field Ambulance and then to the 3rd Australian Casualty Station at Grevillers, where he died of his wounds on 5 May, aged 30. He is buried in the Grevillers Military Cemetery. Seventeen members of 14th Field Ambulance were killed at Bullecourt.

This commemorative plaque was sent to Frank's father, Robert Cranston Anderson, in October 1922. His brother, Sergeant Gerald Gordon Anderson, awarded the Military Medal and Belgian Croix de Guerre, served with 50th Battalion and survived the war.