Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/07/1915

Date of Discharge

11/02/1920

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

10/06/1895

Place of Birth

Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

School(s) Attended

Ballarat High School

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Sophie Coldwell-Smith (mother), Ballarat, Victoria

Final Rank

Captain

Final Unit

32 Battalion AIF

Military Cross (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 29 June 1917)

Coldwell-Smith entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 9 March 1913 and was probably a spectator at the Canberra naming ceremony a few days later. He graduated on 28 June 1915 and was appointed as a Lieutenant on 1 July 1915, sailing for Egypt in November 1915 with the 29th Battalion. He was appointed as a Captain in February 1916 and arrived in France in June 1916. He was slightly wounded in August 1916. For his work up until September 1916, as Company Officer and Intelligence Officer, he was awarded the Military Cross.

After being hospitalised in England with severe bronchitis, Coldwell-Smith returned to France and was attached to the 15th Brigade Headquarters. At the end of 1917 he undertook training as a Staff Officer and was then detached to the War Records Section in London. In October 1918 he was transferred to the 32nd Battalion and on the day the war ended Coldwell-Smith was admitted to Bulford Hospital. He rejoined the War Records Section the following year and returned to Australia in December 1919. He remained in the army after the war but health problems prevented his active service in World War 2 and he retired on 2 November 1940. Frederick Coldwell-Smith died in Sydney on 23 November 1967.

Description - height 5 feet 9½ inches, weight 160 pounds, chest 38 inches.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Collections Record : C05028