| [Index] |
| Frank Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY (1919 - 2000) |
| Children | Self + Spouses | Parents | Grandparents | Greatgrandparents |
|
Living Living Living |
Frank Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY (1919 - 2000) + Joan Maree STONEY Living |
Frederick Arthur ELWORTHY (1891 - 1967) | Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY (1866 - 1935) | James Baker ELWORTHY (1833 - 1889) |
| Henrietta Sophia Jane LARGE (1846 - 1915) | ||||
| Leah Christian ISAAC (1865 - 1930) | John ISAAC (1827 - 1895) | |||
| Elizabeth (Lizzie) KING (1821 - 1905) | ||||
| Viola Janet (VJ) HANSEN (1893 - 1987) | Frank HANSEN (1856 - ) | |||
| Hannah Maira Ellen FITCH (1871 - 1927) | Edward FITCH (1830 - 1910) | |||
| Janet Elizabeth MACKAY (1832 - 1907) |
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| b. 30 May 1919 at Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia |
| m. (1) 11 Sep 1946 Joan Maree STONEY at Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia |
| m. (2) Living Living or Recently Deceased |
| d. 20 Dec 2000 at West Gosford, New South Wales, Australia aged 81 |
| Parents: |
| Frederick Arthur ELWORTHY (1891 - 1967) |
| Viola Janet (VJ) HANSEN (1893 - 1987) |
| Siblings (5): |
| Robert Fitch Ross ELWORTHY (1928 - 1990) |
| Macarthur Arthur James (Cookie) ELWORTHY (1933 - 2008) |
| Children (3): |
| Grandchildren (5): |
| Events in Frank Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY (1919 - 2000)'s life | |||||
| Date | Age | Event | Place | Notes | Src |
| 30 May 1919 | Frank Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY was born | Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia | |||
| 26 Jun 1940 | 21 | Enlisted - Army | Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia | ||
| 15 Feb 1942 | 22 | Captured in fall of Singapore | Singapore | ||
| 28 Mar 1946 | 26 | Discharged | Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia | ||
| 11 Sep 1946 | 27 | Married Joan Maree STONEY | Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia | 31299/1946 | |
| abt 1952 | 33 | Divorced (Joan Maree STONEY) | |||
| 23 Jan 1967 | 47 | Death of father Frederick Arthur ELWORTHY (aged 75) | Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia | 13924/1967 | |
| 06 Aug 1987 | 68 | Death of mother Viola Janet (VJ) HANSEN (aged 94) | Wynnum, Queensland, Australia | ||
| 20 Dec 2000 | 81 | Frank Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY died | West Gosford, New South Wales, Australia | Obituary | 22 |
| Personal Notes: |
|
Fred and Vi showed due family respect when naming their first son - Frank for Vi's father and for her brother just returned from Army service in France, Arthur for Fred's father, Ernest for Fred's bachelor uncle.
Frank greeted the world at Gundagai on 30 May 1919. His education began at tiny Crowther Public School, then a few months at Gundagai Public followed by correspondence lessons when the family went out to "Burrenderry". Life in Depression days was tough and so different from today. There was no water laid on to the house so each day Frank took a slide pulled by a draught horse to the Tumut River for the day's supply. A44-gallon drum covered by a corn sack held in place by a steel hoop was wired to the slide which was backed down the river bank and the drum filled by buckets. Old Toby was not too keen about this. When half way up the incline he'd often stop, tipping the slide and spilling the water. A smart jab in the rump with a pitchfork quickly cured the habit! Another chore was milking a cranky roan cow which jumped barbed wire topped fences, tearing her teats. This made her a bit skittish and disinclined to be milked. There was no yard so her 'bail' was a leg rope near a fence. More than once Frank had a faceful of manure kicked up by the malevolent beast and ran to the house yelling for fresh water and scented soap! While at high school, Frank boarded in Tumut, travelling up by train on Monday morning and home on Friday. In 1934 he did his Intermediate at Neutral Bay Boys' High School then for three months worked on his Aunt 01 and Uncle Pat O'Brien's dairy farm at Windsor before joining the Loans Division of the Rural Bank's Head Office for two years. He enjoyed the work - but not the pay of 52 pounds a year! Frank found his niche as a salesman when he went to EMMCO and stayed with them until he joined the Army on 26 June 1940. On 03 Feb 1941 aboard the Queen Mary, the world's biggest liner-eum-troopcarrier, he sailed from Sydney with the Eighth Division, arriving in Singapore 15 days later. For the next 12 months in various parts of Malaya, the troops trained in jungle warfare, setting up machine-gun posts and generally preparing to meet the enemy. When the Japanese finally invaded, the men fought their way down the Malayan Peninsula back to Singapore with very heavy casualties along the way. Frank had transferred to 22 Bde HQ and by 12 Feb all the staff were back safely at HQ when an enemy truck laden with ammunition broke through the forward area. Frank's brave action in manning a Vickers machine gun under fire at the entrance to Brigade HQ and destroying the vehicle was recorded in the official Brigade diary - although he wasn't mentioned by name! On 15 Feb 1942 Singapore "the impregnable fortress of the East" fell to the Japanese. For several months the Australians were gaoled at Changi as prisoners-of-war, the start of three and a half years of hell. Put to work at once, Frank's first job was on Singapore wharves loading British goods from godowns or warehouses into Japanese ships. He also had to carry 220 Ib sacks of rice on his back up the gangplank. As part of"A" Force (the first group out) they went by ship to Burma to start the infamous Burma Railway hacking their way through the jungle with long-bladed parangs. Used to good nutritious food, a pannikin measure of uncooked rice a day and watery grass soup, was nowhere near enough to sustain the men toiling under the most appalling conditions. Frank survived pellagra, malaria, dysentery, beri-beri, typhus and tropical ulcers. Medicines and equipment were almost non--existent; dedicated doctors did what they could, performing superhuman tasks in saving lives. At last, with tragic cost of human life, the railway was finished. Many men were sent to Saigon and finally to Japan. Frank's group were packed like sardines in the hold of the Awa Maru for a 31 day trip. Their daily rations were a mug of rice and a piece of smelly dried fish! Leaving Singapore in sweltering heat on 16 Dec 1944 and dodging US torpedoes they reached Moji on 15 Jan 1945 in frigid weather, more bitterly cold than they had ever experienced and for which they were pitifully underclad. Until war's end, Frank worked in a coal mine quite near Nagasaki - Camp 22 Fukuoka on Kyushu, the southernmost island. Early in August they knew something strange had happened - especially when previously brutal guards began treating them more humanely and they heard rumours about a terrible weapon! Waiting for the Yanks to liberate them was a nail-biting time and the men became edgy. Without asking permission Frank, his pit-mate Jimmy Hogg and Frank Thompson left camp, caught a train north and headed for General MacArthur's HQ in Tokyo. Eight days after the atom bomb was dropped they were in Hiroshima - and even stayed the night there! Appalled by the fearful devastation but unaware of its actual cause, they didn't know about the danger of exposure to radiation. They needed to get to Tokyo and that was that! Clad in old shorts, boots and slouch hat and weighing six stone, Frank and his mates welcomed the new clothes, medicine and food the generous Americans supplied. From Tokyo they were flown to Okinawa for much-needed recuperation and rest, then to Clarke Field in the Philippines. Repatriated on the Formidable, Frank arrived in Sydney to a joyous welcome in October 1945. After a few months at home in Gundagai he was discharged on 29 March 1946 - nearly six years after he had joined the AlF. On 11 Sep 1946 at St Anne's, Strathfield Frank wed Joan Maree STONEY, his prewar sweetheart. They had a flat at Waruda Street, Kirribili in a harbourside unit which now has Sydney's top view - it's directly opposite the glorious Opera House! With Joan as nominal partner, Frank started an indent and manufacturer's agency. Some of his lines (which later were very successful) were 3-speed record players, Pressure-Pak aerosol sprays, Purex bleach, Hawkins pressure cookers but factories were returning to pre-war production and not interested in new lines. Eventually he had no option but to give up the agencies. At least he didn't contribute to the greenhouse effect! Frank bought a home at Greenwich prior to the birth of Diane Maree in 1948, but not long after he and Joan parted and Diane didn't see her father for 37 years. Through a technicality Joan closed down the business and shortly after Frank went back to farming at Gundagai. They divorced four years later. With Uncle Jim and brother Rob as non-active partners, he formed a building company, erected Housing Commission homes in Gundagai, leased land close to town for a brickworks, hired an experienced brickmaker and with some financial help from his future father-in-law, bought a custom-made brickmaking plant. In 1952 at St Peter's Hornsby Frank married Bettie SAVAGE. Reading about motels which were booming in America, Frank saw the potential for Gundagai - almost half-way between Sydney and Melbourne. Land which Bettie had bought for the company in West Avenue was an ideal site. Civil & Civic Constructions (now Lend Lease Corporation) snapped it up for the country's first motel, paying half the price in cash and the rest in shares. Sadly for Bettie and Frank, the shares were in his uncle Jim's name - and without consultation, he sold them! With help from the Rural Bank, Frank had bought 375-acre Tarada with 200 acres of river flats by the time their son John was born at Wahroonga in 1954. Bettie was Publicity Officer for the Back to Gundagai Week in 1956. Floods for three years and a very serious injury to his right hand in a car accident put paid to Frank's farming career. Wanting to keep the land in the family, he agreed to his Uncle Jim's proposal to transfer the property (and its debt) to his youngest brother, James. In 1957 while living at Hornsby with her parents, Bettie returned to the Daily Telegraph. There was no job vacancy but Frank Packer told the Chief of Staff to make one! After the transfer of Tarada, Frank joined his family in Sydney and became Implements Manager for Chamberlains who made the first wholly Australian-made tractors. With responsibility for all the eastern states, he travelled all over NSW, Queensland and Victoria for three weeks of each month. Shortly after daughter Jane was born in 1958 the family moved to Beecroft. Chamberlains were taken over; Frank became redundant; the family moved to Queensland where he managed the Victorian Scottish Co in Brisbane and Bettie was secretary to the manager of EFCO, men's clothing manufacturer. Later they formed Bulk Supplies and Services, discounting electrical goods, floor coverings, furnishings and fittings for apartment blocks, factories and a few individuals - but sadly the business did not survive the recession of 1964. For the next 17 years they lived in Newcastle where Frank worked for Comsteel and Newcastle Tech College. Frank still suffered after-effects from a skull fracture received in a Japanese mine cave-in as well as post-traumatic stress. During a severe epileptiform fit he tore his diaphragm, later lost the sight of his left eye and became a TPI pensioner in 1974 which precluded Bettie from working. When John married in Api 1981 and moved to Arrnidale they went up to Wynnum to be near Frank's mother and sister Betty. Service Record Name ELWORTHY, FRANK ARTHUR ERNEST Service Australian Army Service Number NX51361 Date of Birth 30 May 1919 Place of Birth GUNDAGAI, NSW Date of Enlistment 26 Jun 1940 Locality on Enlistment GUNDAGAI, NSW Place of Enlistment PADDINGTON, NSW Next of Kin ELWORTHY, VIOLET Date of Discharge 28 Mar 1946 Rank Lance Corporal Posting at Discharge HQ 22 BDE WW2 Honours and Gallantry None for display Prisoner of War Yes http://www.austhistmuseum.mq.edu.au/exhibits/selarang/japan.htm No.: NX51361 Name: Frank Arthur Ernest Elworthy Rank: Lance Corporal Unit: HQ 22nd Brigade Date & Place of Birth: 20/05/1909, Gundagai, Sydney Date & Place of Enlistment: 26/06/1940, Paddington, Sydney Places of Captivity: Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Japan (Iizouka) Frank Elworthy enlisted at the age of 31 in 1940. Frank served with the 22nd Brigade Headquarters (Intelligence) in Singapore until its fall in February 1942 when he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was transported to Fukuoka Camp No.22 in Japan, finally arriving there in January 1945, where he remained until the Japanese surrender. He was sent on working parties in the coal mines, and on the 23rd of August 1945 he received serious head injuries whilst working in a mine from a dynamite blast, but was soon sent back to work. |
| Source References: |
| 2. Type: Book, Abbr: Devon to Downunder, Title: Devon to Downunder, Auth: Bettie Elworthy, Publ: Bookbound, Date: 1997 |
| - Reference = 208ff (Name, Notes) |
| 22. Type: Web Page, Abbr: Ryerson obituary index, Title: Ryerson Obituary Index, Locn: http://ryersonindex.net/search.php |
| - Reference = (Death) |