Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 24/01/1916
- Date of Discharge
- 14/08/1919
- Place of Enlistment
- Sydney NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Place of Birth
- Queanbeyan NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Waratah NSW (previously Tuggeranong ACT)
- School(s) Attended
- Tuggranong (Tuggeranong) School
- Occupation
- Telegraphist
- Next of Kin
- Eliza Brownsmith (mother), Station Street, Waratah NSW
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 10532
- Final Rank
- Sergeant
- Final Unit
- 3 Division Signal Company AIF
Commemoration
Roll of Honor Queanbeyan Public School, Isabella Street, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW (as F Brown-Smith)
Notes
Brownsmith's father worked on the railways and they lived in the Tuggeranong area from about 1892 to 1905. Brownsmith became a telegraph messenger at the Queanbeyan Post Office and was farewelled in 1906 when he was posted to Parramatta. He enlisted with the 3rd Division Signal Company and served in France from November 1916. He was wounded (shot in the arm) during the Battle of Messines in June 1917 and sent to England to recover. He returned to the Western Front in September 1917 and was promoted to Sergeant in October 1918. He returned to Australia in August 1919. The AWM photo shows Brownsmith with four other despatch riders with the 3rd Divisional Signal Company at Foucaucourt in France in January 1919. One of them is holding a sign saying 'Undesirables'.
Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, weight 179 pounds, chest 38-40 inches, fair complexion, dark blue eyes, red hair, Methodist.
Sources
John Cope, 'If only these stones could speak: a history of Queanbeyan Public School 1864-2001', 2001
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Tuggeranong School Punishment Book (Tuggeranong School House, Chisholm)
Queanbeyan Age - 11 July 1905, 18 April 1908
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Collections Record : Photograph C04827