Sergeant Drummer Frederick William Crane

Frederick William Crane was born at Eagleton, near Raymond Terrace, New South Wales, in 1887 to parents James and Jane nee Rees. He served with the Derwent Infantry Regiment in Hobart for 8½ years and was discharged when he left Tasmania to go to Papua. Crane appears to have spent between one and two years in Port Moresby, where he served with the Port Moresby Rifle Club.

Crane enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Enoggera, Queensland, on 21 October 1914 with the rank of Sergeant Drummer, and gave his occupation as a civil servant. He was one of five brothers who enlisted during the First World War – Sapper Arthur Stafford Crane (2nd Signals Squadron); Staff-Sergeant George Crane (1st Battalion; recalled as an instructor); Private Percy Raymond Crane (17th Machine Gun Company); and Sergeant Walter James Crane (20th Battalion).

Crane embarked at Melbourne with the 15th Battalion aboard HMAT Ceramic on 22 December 1914. He joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on Gallipoli on 12 April 1915 and embarked from Alexandria on the Itonus for Mudros on 14 July 1915, joining the 15th Battalion on Gallipoli on 18 July 1915.

On 2 August 1915, a concert was organised to raise the spirits of the men. Crane was reported to be the “life and soul of this performance”, described as “the moving spirit of the evening, and his sparkling humour was just the tonic his war-weary comrades required.” Crane had been the bandmaster of the 15th Battalion Band since the early days of the unit at Broadmeadows Camp. At the conclusion of the concert, the cheers rendered to thank Crane resulted in a barrage of heavy machine-gun and rifle fire on their location in the trenches at Walker’s Ridge.

Crane remained on Gallipoli until 19 August when he was admitted to the 13th Casualty Clearing Station and then transferred to Mudros. He was again sent to hospital with sickness from Gallipoli on 25 August 1915. Suffering from dysentery, he was later admitted to the hospital ship Ascanius on 27 August 1915. This was followed by admission to a military hospital at Imtarfa, Malta, on 31 August 1915, with dysentery and intermittent malaria, before leaving for England aboard the Dover Castle on 15 September 1915. On 24 January 1916, a medical board in London found that he was medically unfit for service for 6 months. He left Portland, England, aboard the Ascanius to return to Australia on 17 March 1916. He was suffering from dysentery and shell shock at the time and was discharged on medical grounds on 6 November 1916.

Crane returned to Mosman, Sydney, and married Christina Evelyn Wyld at St Clements Church, Mosman on 3 May 1919. At the time, he held a staff position at Rose Bay as an accountant and Evelyn was doing voluntary work in the Voluntary Workers’ Café. Frederick Crane died on 5 January 1964.