ANZAC Search

Edward Franklin - Information

Edward was born in Camden c1898 to John and May Franklin. After the war began, the Franklins relocated to 41 Gibbon St in Redfern. Here, Edward was working as a farm hand when he decided to enlist in the AIF. He signed up in Cootamundra on the 13th of February 1916. He was assigned to the 14th Reinforcements, 19th Battalion as a Private. He was then shipped overseas on the 22nd of August 1916 from Sydney onboard the HMAT Wiltshire.

Edward landed in Plymouth in mid October, and proceeded to France in late November. He joined his Battalion the following month. At the time, the soldiers in the trenches were enduring a bitter winter of sub-zero temperatures. In the new year, the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line, and the Allies gave chase. Consequently, the 19th Battalion and the Germans clashed at Lagnicourt, and again during the Second Battle of Bullecourt on the 3rd of May. Edward was then appointed Lance Corporal on the 11th of June 1917. In August he attended the Divisional Bomb School and was made Temporary Corporal. Then on the 24th of September, he was appointed Lance Sergeant. While Edward and his unit were fighting during the Third Battle of Ypres, he was promoted to Temporary Sergeant on the 30th of October. However, he reverted back to Lance Sergeant in early December. In 1918, the Germans were desperate to break through the lines before the bulk of American troops were in France. They launched a grand assault in March, known as their Spring Offensive. They pushed through and threatened much of the line. The Australian Corps were brought in to plug the gaps. Edward was then wounded in action at Hangard Wood on the 7th of April, with a gun shot wound to his right arm. He was rushed to hospital in Abbeville, and later evacuated to England to the Military Hospital in Colchester. The wound to his arm was severe; the bullet had shattered the humerus bone. Edward was unable to continue his war service, and he was invalided back to Australia on the 31st of July 1918. He was discharged in December and returned to his previous life. Unfortunately work on a farm would have been difficult for some time due to his injury.