Leonard Harold Francis Fradd 1898

Leonard Harold Francis Fradd was born on the 21^st of February 1898 in Burra, (Hampton District) South Australia. He was schooled at Copperhouse and was the eldest of 9 children born to Francis and Mary Magdalene Fradd (nee Opitz).

The family moved to Broken Hill sometime after 1907where they resided in Chapple Street, Convent Hill. Leonard was to have a fairly turbulent childhood; as detailed in the following 3 articles.

Recaptured in Broken Hill (Barrier Miner, Tuesday 10 Sep 1912)

Leonard Fradd a troublesome 14 year old boy has been up to mischief more than once.

He was concerned in petty larceny at Broken Hill some months ago and was dealt with in the Children’s Court. He was ordered to be sent to Altona House a reformatory in Sydney. It was he and another boy who broke away from custody some time ago when under escort to Sydney. Fradd had the audacity to return to Broken Hill recently. He was identified in the street on Saturday by a constable and arrested. Under the Neglected Children and Juvenile Detention Act, boys under the age of 16 years are not to be imprisoned. Consequently Fradd was ordered to be held in the shelter at Silverton where he would be detained pertaining an escort to take him to Sydney to serve his term at Altona House Reformatory.

 

Broken Hill (The Register, Adelaide Monday 9 September 1912)
 

Leonard Fradd, aged 15, who escaped from custody in Melbourne early in July, while being conveyed from Broken Hill to Sydney, was rearrested in Broken Hill on Saturday.

Fradd and another lad (Pearson) were convicted here in the Children’s Court for complication in several robberies and were being taken to the Reformatory in Sydney, when they made good their escape. The Melbourne police arrested them a few days later, but they again got away and nothing more was heard of either until Fradd was re-arrested yesterday. He did not like the thought of recapture, and gave the policeman a smart run. Fradd will again be removed to Sydney.

 

Quarter Sessions, Grafton (The Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 19 November 1914)

 

West Maitland. The Maitland Quarter Sessions were opened at the Courthouse, East Maitland on Tuesday before Judge  Fitzhardinge, Mr A.S. Dawson was Crown Prosecutor. The list of cases was light, and for the first time in the history of the court all the accused pleaded guilty, a proceeding the rendered unnecessary the presence of any jurymen. Frederick Percy (16) and Leonard Fradd (16) for stealing from a dwelling at Telegraph Point were each sentenced to six months imprisonment. His Honour desired one to be imprisoned in Maitland and the other in Goulburn Gaol. (Leonard)

Leonards Prison Record

 

Leonard was listed as a Prisoner Discharged Free in the New South Wales Police Gazette in 1915. One wonders whether the pardon was a way of bolstering the A.I.F. ranks because Leonard soon joined the "colours" on the 11th December 1915 where he received 6 shillings per day.

He was to marry Sylvia May Hall in 1916 and they resided in "Cudgegong", Crimea Street, Parramatta before Leonard enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces.

The Nominal Roll listed Leonard in the 19th Infantry Battalion, 13th Reinforcements when he sailed aboard HMAT Ajana from Sydney on 05 July1915 to go and fight in The Great War.

Leonard was transferred to the 34th Battalion, spent time in the 9th Australian Machine Gun Company and finished with the 36th Battalion.

The 36th Battalion was raised at Broadmeadow Camp, in Newcastle, New South Wales in February 1916. The bulk of the battalion's recruits came from New South Wales rifle clubs and along with the 33rd, 34th and 35th Battalions, it formed the 9th Brigade, attached to the 3rd Division. Upon arrival in England, the battalion spent the next four months in training, before taking up a position on the Western Front on 4 December 1916, in time to sit out an uncomfortable winter in the trenches.

Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. Leonard was no different. He was in and out of hospitals in Belgium and France with this condition. The infection of the feet was caused by cold, wet and insanitary conditions where men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench foot was a particular problem in the early stages of the war particularly during the winter of 1914-15.

“If you have never had trench feet described to you. I will tell you. Your feet swell to two or three times their normal size and go completely dead. You could stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are fortunate enough not to lose your feet and the swelling begins to go down. It is then that the intolerable, indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and even scream with the pain and many had to have their feet and legs amputated.” Sergeant Harry Roberts, Lancashire Fusiliers, interviewed after the war.

Enlisted Casula Camp N.S.W.	11 Dec 1915
Embarked Sydney-HMAT A31 Ajana	05 Jul 1916
Disembarked Plymouth, UK	31 Aug 1916
Transferred from 34th Battalion to 19th Battalion (13th reinforcements)	20 Apr  1916
Transferred from 19th Battalion to 36th Battalion	29 Sep 1916
Overseas to France EX Southampton	22 Nov 1916
Admitted To Hospital Belgium-Dilated Heart Transferred to 3 ADRS	20 Jul 1917
Transferred to 10 Reinforcement Camp	21 Jul 1917
Re-joined Unit  ex Hospital France	30 Jul 1917
Re-joined unit from Hospital (Belgium)	02 Aug 1917
Detached to 9th Australian Machinegun Company from 36th Battalion A.I.F.	10 Aug 1917
Detached to 9th  AMGC (Field)	16 Aug 1917
To Hospital Sick from Attachment (Field)	08 Sep 1917
Admitted To Hospital Sick - Sth Ypres	26 Sep 1917
Admission Injury to toe nail to 45 Hos (France)	26 Sep 1917
Admission to 7 Con D	13 Oct 1917
Admission to B/D	02 Nov 1917
In From Hospital	16 Nov 1917
Marched Out To Unit	21 Nov 1917
Re-joined Battalion From S (Belgium)	22 Nov 1917
Re-joined Batt From Hospital Sick	22 Nov  1917
On Leave to UK	16 Jan 1918
Re-joined from Leave (Belgium)	03 Feb 1918
Detached to Tunnelling Company (Belgium)	08 Feb 1918
Re-joined from Tunnelling Company (Belgium)	24 Feb 1918
Admitted To Hospital Sick - France	27 Feb 1918
Re-joined Batt From Sick (France)	07 Mar 1918
Re-joined Batt From Sick- Gingivitis (France)	12 Mar 1918
Re-joined Battalion	16 Mar 1918
Wounded In Action - Gunshot Wound to RH (France)	04 Apr 1918
Invalided to UK- 2 Gen Hos	06 Apr 1918
Admitted to Southern General Hospital Portsmouth England	07 Apr 1918
Re-joined  34th Batt	02 Aug 1918
Proceeded Overseas FRANCE ex Longbridge Deverill via  Folkestone	29 Aug 1918
Marched In ex England (Rouelles, France)	01 Sep 1918
Pte: M(?)/i: A.J.B.D. from UK wounded (Prev: 36th Bn)	01 Sep 1918
Marched Out To Front (Rouelles, France)	03 Sep 1918
T.O.S. H. Reinf 34 Bn x 36 Bn (Field)	05 Sep 1918
Returned Home to Australia Per S.S. Borda	11 May 1919
Retd. ‘Borda’ (TPE)             Disc.  12/8/19	28 Jun 1

 

Leonards War Record

Over the course of the next six months the 36th Battalion was mainly involved in only minor defensive actions and it was not until 7 June 1917 the battalion fought in its first major battle, at Messines.  After this, the battalion participated in the attack on Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. During this battle, the battalion managed to secure its objective, however, as other units had not been able to do so, the battalion had to withdraw as its flanks were exposed to German counter-attacks and there was a lack of effective artillery support.

For the next five months the 36th Battalion alternated between periods of duty manning the line and training or labouring out of the line before it was called upon to blunt the German advance during their last ditched effort to win the war during the Spring Offensive of 1918.

During this time they were deployed around  Villers-Bretonneux  in order to defend the approaches to Amiens, taking part in a counter-attack at Hangard Wood in late March before beating off a concerted German attack on Villers-Bretonneux on 4 April, where the battalion suffered greatly when the Germans attacked with gas.

This was to be the 36th Battalion's last contribution to the war, as it was disbanded on 30 April 1918 in order to reinforce other 9th Brigade units. The earlier campaigns had severely depleted the A.I.F. in France and since 1916 the flow of reinforcements from Australia had slowly been decreasing as the war dragged on and casualties mounted.

The refusal of the Australian public to institute conscription had made this situation even worse, and in late 1918 it became clear that the A.I.F. could not maintain the number of units it had deployed in France and it was decided to disband three battalions—the 36th, 47th and 52nd—in order to reinforce others.

During its service, the battalion suffered 452 killed and 1,253 wounded. Leonard was wounded and listed on the casualty list with a gunshot wound to the right hand on 4th April 1918.

Below the shattered ground that separated the British and German infantry on the Western Front in the First World War, an unseen and largely unknown war was raging, fought by miners, ‘tunnellers’ as they were known. They knew that, at any moment, their lives could be extinguished without warning by hundreds of tonnes of collapsed earth and debris.

Leonard, who was a Miner before joining the AIF, was detached to a Tunnelling Company in Belgium for 3 weeks on the 08 February 1918.

These men were engaged in a desperate duel with their German opponents to destroy their opposing front lines by blowing mines, carefully placed in dark, treacherous tunnels under no man’s land. At the same time, the tunnellers worked to defend their own front lines from the German miners, intent on the same deadly task. It was a war within a war in its most literal sense.

The secret war culminated in the simultaneous blowing of nineteen huge mines, with a combined payload of almost 450,000 tonnes of high explosives, beneath the Messines Ridge.

Over 4,500 Australians served on the Western Front in three Australian tunnelling companies and their unique support unit, the Alphabet Company. Around 330 men did not return. The remains of most lie in carefully tended military cemeteries spread along the entire length of what was the British sector of the front, from the Belgian coast at Nieuport Bains in the north, to Bellicourt in the south.

Some lie on German soil where they died in captivity. Others are lost in the dark, silent embrace of the earth and whose resting place is known unto God.

Australian tunnelling companies took part in the battles of Fromelles, Arras, Messines, Passchendaele, Cambrai, the defence of Amiens, Lys, and the famous last 100 days.

Leonard returned to Australia in December 1918.

Sylvia died in 1925 and a year later Leonard married Mona Estelle Hedges of Waterloo in 1926. They had 5 children. Once again, Leonard was involved with the law; but this time he was an "innocent bystander".

Man Killed In Yard ~ Widows Son Arrested ~ Murder Charge

Sydney Sunday

(The Argus, Melbourne Vic, Mon 28 February 1938)

Albert Hedges, aged 50 years, a relief worker, of Birmingham Street, Merrylands, was shot through the head and killed instantly while in the yard of the home of Mrs Muriel Smith, a widow at Sheffield Street, Merrylands this afternoon.

Hedges had been accompanied to the house by Leonard Fradd, his son-in-law. After Hedges was shot Fradd ran from the yard and two shots were fired at him as he ran up the street. Albert Hedges had been on friendly terms for some years with Mrs. Smith, who has four sons.

When he arrived at the house about 1pm today, an argument arose between him and Eric Smith, aged 20 years, a son of Mrs. Smith.

Quarrel in Yard

After this argument Hedges left the house but returned shortly afterwards with Fradd, and a quarrel took place. Hedges was standing on the path in the yard when a shot was fired, and the bullet struck him on the side of his head and passed through his brain.

Fradd ran out of the gate into the street. Two more shots were fired in his direction, but he was not struck.The Parramatta police visited the scene and took possession of a 22 calibre single-shot rifle.

Eric Alexander Smith was charged tonite with having murdered Hedges and with having attempted to murder Leonard Harold Fradd.

Leonard had further run-ins with the law up until 1943 and was further charged with Stealing, Receiving Stolen Goods, Indecent Language, and Drunk and Disorderly.
Leonard somehow lived until he was 81 when he died in 1980, presumably, in Sydney New South Wales.