Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 01/10/1918
- Date of Discharge
- 31/12/1918
- Place of Enlistment
- Sydney NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 04/07/1893
- Place of Birth
- Coolamon Plains NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- 'Fern Hill', Yass Road, Ainslie ACT
- Occupation
- Grazier
- Next of Kin
- Elsie Southwell (wife), 'Fern Hill', Ainslie ACT
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 93507
- Final Rank
- Private
- Final Unit
- Composite Battalion
Commemoration
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan Methodist Church Roll of Honour
Notes
Fred Southwell was born at 'Coolamine', in the mountains to the west of the Brindabellas, where his father worked as overseer for Frederick Campbell from 1882 to 1909. They returned to 'Rosevale' near Sutton but in 1911 his father bought 'Fern Hill', Upper Canberra where Southwell was farming when he enlisted in 1918. He was the brother of Malcolm Southwell and had previously been rejected as medically unfit possibly because of a severe foot injury he received timber cutting. He returned to camp after his final leave to find it apparently empty following the signing of the armistice. Southwell married Elsie Jones in October 1918 and was demobilised on 18 November 1918 before being discharged on 31 December 1918.
His property 'Fern Hill' covered part of the area now known as Southwell Park and over O'Connor Ridge to the AIS. He later became a close friend and confidante of Prime Minister John Curtin, who enjoyed wandering the paddocks of 'Fern Hill' as an escape from the pressures of politics. Southwell died on 14 January 1968 in Canberra.
Description - height 6 feet 1 inches, weight 162 pounds, chest 34-38 inches, fresh complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair, Methodist.
Sources
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Lyall Gillespie, 'Ginninderra - Forerunner to Canberra', 1992
Lyall Gillespie, 'The Southwell Family, pioneers of the Canberra district', 1988
Klaus Hueneke, 'Huts of the High Country', 1983 (pp. 208-214)
National Library of Australia: Country Women's Association of NSW (Canberra Branch) History, 1959 (manuscript call no. NLA MS 734)