A large crowd gathered in Armidale on Sunday to experience a formal military graveside dedication service for Gallipoli veteran, Trooper Harry Fry, whose remains had been in an unmarked pauper’s grave for 83 years. The ceremony for the digger fittingly took place on Remembrance Day, in the Anglican portion of the Armidale Cemetery.
Harry Fry was born in the UK on September 25, 1866, emigrated to Australia at the age of 10 and arrived in Townsville on January 23, 1877. He enlisted on November 4, 1914. When enlisting, Harry gave his age as 43, when in fact he had just had his 48th birthday in September of that year (the lie making him below the age limit for enlistment). He was sent to Enoggera to join 5th Light Horse Regiment, departed Australia for Egypt on December 21, 1914 on the ship HMAT Persic, and went with the 5th Light Horse Regiment when they landed at Gallipoli.
On June 28, 1915 Harry was seriously wounded by a mortar explosion during the attack on the Turkish held Balkan Gun Pits. He was evacuated to a hospital ship, then eventually to Malta, then England, where he was a patient at King George Hospital in London, before returning to Australia on November 25, 1915. His wound having healed, but still suffering from shell shock, he arrived home in Australia on December 21, 1915.
Harry was discharged as “medically unfit for further active service” on April 12, 1916, due to shell shock, and was granted a pension by the Repatriation Department of three pounds per fortnight, which was reduced in February 1917 to two pounds, five shillings.
Harry died in Armidale Hospital of heart disease on March 5, 1929, at the age of almost 63, and was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave, paid for by the NSW Police, at the cost of seven pounds. The Police did not inform his sister Ellen that he had died (she was still living in Cooroy, Qld and was his next of kin, recorded in his Army and Repatriation Department files).
After over 15 years of searching, Harry’s great-grand-niece, Mrs Lila Vincent, with the assistance of the New England Heritage Centre and Armidale Dumaresq Council (ADC), located Harry’s resting place in an unmarked grave at the Armidale Cemetery. In mid-2012, the Australian War Graves Commission had a headstone put in place.
Through the assistance of the UNE Heritage Centre’s Bill Oates, Mrs Vincent found Trooper Frys burial place and other details in the last 12 months. The Department of Veterans Affairs, through the Office of Australian War Graves, paid for the bronze Memorial plaque.
Lila and Tom Vincent (aged 74 and 75 respectively) came down from the Gold Coast to attend the military Graveside Dedication Service for 488 Trooper Harry Fry. Nine family members in total came from Queensland and Sydney. The broad community representation included the 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers; local RSL members and the National Servicemen’s Association; Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay; and ADC Mayor, Cr Jim Maher.
Warrant Officer Class Two, Wayne Bulmer, who is a Training Sgt Major at the Gaza Training Depot, Armidale within the 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers, coordinated the service. “It included military members in uniform, a firing party, a military padre, the Last Post and a Poppy Service. This was a chance for the family and this community to pay their respects to a Gallipoli veteran,” he said.
Lila and Tom Vincent said that they were overwhelmed by the community support, in completing their family history research and in conducting or attending the ceremony. “It means a great deal to our family, especially after so many years of searching. We are very proud,” Lila said. “Our gratitude goes out to everyone involved, particularly, Piddington’s Funeral Directors, the Council, the Army and the UNE Heritage Centre.”
When three rounds were fired by the 12 members of the firing party, it was loud and clear that Trooper Harry Fry has finally received the military send-off that he deserved.
