100 Days of Heroes: Father-of-five Frederick Lewis’ tragic sacrifice in World War I

FORMER policeman Frederick Lewis was working on the Hobart tramway when he enlisted for war service at the Hobart Regatta in February 1916.

Company Sergeant-Major Frederick William Lewis is remembered at tree 194 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.

FORMER policeman Frederick Lewis was working on the Hobart tramway when he enlisted for war service at the Hobart Regatta in February 1916.

Born in the East London district of Bow in 1878, Frederick came to Australia with his parents Caroline and Thomas Lewis at age 19.

He married Mabel Ricketts at Hobart’s Melville St Parsonage in 1901 and when he joined up the couple was living at 34 Queen St, Sandy Bay, with their children Dudley, Arthur, Frederick, Edie and Phyllis.

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Company Sergeant-Major Frederick Lewis

Frederick was working as a tram hand on the Hobart Municipal Tramways but had previously served for nearly five years with the Royal Marine Light Infantry, and later as a police trooper based at Lindisfarne.

His children were all under 16 when he embarked with the Tasmanian-dominated 40th Battalion on the SS Berrima in July 1916. He was a sergeant, aged 38, and would later be promoted to company sergeant-major.

He was wounded in the field in France on or around Christmas Day 1916 and spent a week recovering from the gunshot wound to his left hip.

On January 31, 1917, he received a gunshot wound to the head, which fractured his skull.

Frederick died of his injuries later that day at the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, aged 39.

Frederick Lewis’ grave in France.

He was buried at the Trois-Arbres Cemetery in Steenwerck, France, and his widow and children were granted a fortnightly pension of just over six pounds, amounting to about $575 today.

Personal effects including a whistle, pipe, metal cigarette case and letters from home were returned to Mabel, who later remarried and lived at Battery Point.

Sergeant-Major Frederick William Lewis is remembered at tree number 194 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.

His name appears on honour rolls at the Hobart Town Hall and the Hobart Municipal Tramways (now at the Metro depot, Moonah).

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Sergeant-Major Frederick Lewis’ plaque on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.