Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

11/08/1914

Date of Discharge

09/09/1919

Place of Enlistment

Liverpool NSW

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire, England

Address (at enlistment)

c/- J Potter & Son, Sydney NSW (previously Duntroon ACT)

Occupation

Farrier

Next of Kin

Mrs. Frank Telling (mother), Ashton Keynes, England

Service Number

291, 6068

Final Rank

Staff Sergeant

Final Unit

15 Company, Australian Army Service Corps AIF

Telling was the fourth child of fifteen born to Frank and Annie Telling of Ashton Keynes near Swindon in England. He served with the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons before purchasing his discharge.

Telling worked as a farrier at the Royal Military College, Duntroon from 1912 to 1914 and was an active member of the Duntroon Cricket Club. He first enlisted in August 1914 with the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), which captured the German New Guinea territory, and served with them until his time expired on 4 March 1915. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force two days later on 6 March 1915 and embarked for Egypt in May 1915. Telling served in France with the 15th Company, Australian Army Service Corps, from March 1916 rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He returned to Australia in July 1919 and was discharged on 9 September 1919. He then returned to England and married Mildred Taylor in 1921. Telling died on 16 March 1976.

Description - height 5 feet 3inches, weight 140 pounds, fair complexion, chest 32-36 inches, blue eyes, fair hair, Church of England.

Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 31 January 1913, 31 March 1913
Information provided by Rosemary Chalmers