Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

24/07/1915

Place of Enlistment

Sydney NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Also spelt as 'Conrick'

Place of Birth

Staines, Middlesex, England

Address (at enlistment)

Lowesdale via Corowa NSW (also the People's Palace, Pitt Street, Sydney NSW, previously Canberra ACT)

School(s) Attended

Teddington Public School (England)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Mary Cornick (mother), Hammersmith, England

Burial Place

Buried at Warloy Baillon Cemetery, France in plot 7, row A, grave 13

Service Number

2353

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

18 Battalion AIF

Died of wounds 29 July 1916 near Pozieres, France aged 34 years

AWM Roll of Honour, Canberra ACT : Panel 85
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Frank Cornick was a Londoner who was almost 34 years old when he enlisted on 24 July 1915 in Sydney, though the Queanbeyan Age includes him in a list of men who were passed as fit for service by the Government Medical Officer at Queanbeyan. He also appears on the Our Queanbeyan Boys postcard as 'Conrick' and in a list of people paying to agist horses on Commonwealth land in Canberra in 1915 at the concessional rate of one shilling per week; a rate only available to Commonwealth employees. He had previously served with the Royal Marine Light Infantry from 1899 to 1911 and arrived in Australia in about 1912 working his way over as a ship's steward. His Roll of Honour circular says that he also served on HMS Argonaut during the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901). He gave his enlistment address as Lowesdale via Corowa, New South Wales.

Cornick embarked in October 1915 as a Private with the 5th reinforcements to the 18th Battalion. He was posted to A Company, 18th Battalion in Egypt and arrived in Marseilles in March 1916. The 18th Battalion moved into the front line at Pozieres on 25 July 1916. On 27 July his battalion attacked the OG (Old German) trench line north of Pozieres during which Cornick was shot in the thigh and left leg. He was taken to the 2nd Field Ambulance but died of his wounds on 29 July 1916. Cornick was buried in Warloy Baillon Cemetery, five miles west of Albert in France.

Description - height 5 feet 1½ inches, weight 140 pounds, chest 35-37 inches, ruddy complexion, hazel eyes, brown hair, Church of England, no civil convictions.

NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Queanbeyan Age - 21 September 1915, 15 October 1915
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys', Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)