Cottrill, Frank Edward

No.2800 – L/Cpl Frank Edward Cottrill – 39^th Battalion AIF

Frank Edward Cottrill was born in Manchester England in 1872 to James and Sarah Cottrill. He was educated in England and later travelled to Western Australia in 1889 where he took up work on the wharf as a tally clerk. In 1900 he married Florence Jones in Kalgoorlie and they took up residence for the next few years in the Goldfields. In the 1910 census they were listed as living in Victoria Park and after a stint in Cottesloe by 1914 they were living in Carrington Street East Fremantle.

During this time they had several children, Claude born 1901, Madeline in 1903, Elsie in 1906, Eric in 1906 and Lucy in 1913.

On the 25^th September 1916 Frank enlisted at the Fremantle Recruiting Office when he was 44 years old. The medical examiner found him to be 5 feet 2 ½ inches in height; weight of 122 lbs; chest measurement of 32-35 inches; ruddy complexion; blue eyes and fair hair. His religious denomination was Church of England. Initially allotted to the Depot Training Battalion, on the 2^nd December 1916 Frank was allotted to the 6^th Reinforcements to the 39^th Battalion AIF. The 39^th Battalion was a Victoria unit but it took on Western Australian reinforcements. Frank trained in WA with this group until the end of 1916. On the 29^th December they boarded the H.M.A.T. “Persic” in Fremantle Harbour and made the long journey to England where they disembarked at Devonport England on the 3^rd March 1917. The men were marched into the 10^th Training Battalion at Larkhill Camp on the Salisbury Plains. Frank would stay in Camp for several months and it wasn’t until the 9^th October 1917 that he left Southampton England bound for France.

Arriving at Rouelles near Le Havre he marched into the 3^rd Australian Division Base Depot. On the 20^th October 1917 Frank joined up with the 39^th Battalion. He had just missed the Battalion’s actions in the Third Battle of Ypres but for the next three months the battalion held the line near Passchendaele and in the beginning 1918 near Warneton. On the 23^rd December 1917 Frank was promoted to Lance Corporal.

In March 1918 the 39^th Battalion, as part of the 3^rd Division, were sent south to the Somme to try and stem the German breakthrough. They succeeded in stopping the Germans and for the next few months were in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux. On the 8^th August 1918 the Australians advanced from the Amiens front and made spectacular gains. The next month saw the Germans being pushed back. On the 30^th August 1918 Frank was badly wounded and he was evacuated back to the 9^th Field Ambulance.

He had multiple wounds and was evacuated back to the 13^th USA General Hospital at Boulogne. He hung on to life for a few days but the wounds proved to be too serious to recover from and Frank died on the 5^th September 1918. He was buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery at Wimille France in plot III.B.47.