CORNEY, Frank Robertson

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Awards and Honours
  5. Notes
  6. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Army
Conflict
World War I (1914-1918)
Date of Enlistment
01/07/1915
Date of Discharge
02/11/1919
Place of Enlistment
Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Date of Birth
09/11/1894
Place of Birth
South Yarra, Victoria
Address (at enlistment)
Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
Occupation
Soldier
Next of Kin
Rebecca Louisa Corney (mother), Princess Street, St. Kilda, Victoria. His father, Walter Corney, was deceased.

Unit and Rank Details

Final Rank
Staff Captain
Final Unit
6 Infantry Brigade AIF

Awards and Honours

Military Cross (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette19 April 1917, page 925, position 105)

Notes

Corney entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon in March 1913. He and his classmates were spectators at the naming ceremony for Canberra on 12 March 1913. He graduated from RMC on 28 June 1915 along with the rest of his class and was appointed as a Lieutenant in the 31st Battalion. He arrived in Egypt in December 1915 but was transferred to the 25th Battalion the following February. Corney arrived in France with the 25th Battalion in March 1916 and entered the Battle of Pozières in late July 1916. The 25th Battalion seized the German OG1 line on the heights of Pozières where, on 5 August 1916, Corney was wounded in the hand. He had been his Battalion's Intelligence Officer but at Pozières he was leading a Company and "led his men with great courage and determination, capturing and consolidation the enemy's trenches. He remained with his men for twelve hours" before the loss of blood caused his evacuation. Because of his work on that day Corney was awarded the Military Cross. He was evacuated to England for treatment but he was not enthusiastic about returning to the front line, writing "I’m not going to be in too great a hurry to get back to France, as I reckon I’ve seen enough for a while; but all the same, I am only stopping my chance of promotion by staying here, and I would like to get back again for the battalion’s sake as soon as I can as I would not like anyone to think that I was a ‘cold footer’.” He rejoined his unit in April 1917 and was promoted to the rank of Captain and served in mostly staff positions for the rest of the war, marrying an Englishwoman, Lucy Good, in March 1919 before returning to Australia four months later. Although he remained in the army after the war, Corney was later diagnosed with a cerebral disorder resulting from his war service and was admitted to Callan Park Hospital in Sydney until November 1936. He retired in 1935 and died in Victoria in 1963.

Description - height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 143 pounds, chest 38 inches.

Sources

Charles Bean 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. III, p.690n)
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Bill Gammage, 'The Broken Years', 1974 (p.213)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920) 
NAA RecordSearch - Series B4717 (Permanent Military Forces and Army Militia Personnel dossiers, 1901-1973)
AWM Collections Record : DAOF059A, 2DRL/0948

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Frank Corney (right) at Broadmeadows Camp, Victoria, 1916. AWM image DAOF059A.

Frank Corney (right) at Broadmeadows Camp, Victoria, 1916. AWM image DAOF059A.

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