100 Days of Heroes: Hobart brothers in arms Frank and Arthur Rometch joined up under different names
TWO members of a prominent Hobart family business served in World War I but one of them enlisted under a false name.
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TWO members of a prominent Hobart family business served in World War I but one of them enlisted under a false name.
John Rometsch and family arrived in Tasmania from Germany in 1855 and progressed through various careers from gardening and labouring to church work, and ultimately the owner of a parcel delivery firm at the time of his death in 1898.
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In 1872, John, by then a widower, married widow Priscilla Ward and they went on to have a large family including sons Frank and Arthur who would eventually join the Australian Imperial Force.
By then, their surname was being spelled Rometch, but this must have seemed too Germanic for Frank, who enlisted in Sydney using his mother’s surname instead of his father’s.
He also dropped his middle names, calling himself Frank Herbert Ward instead of Frank Rudolph Sigfried Rometch.
Such alterations were not uncommon, with anti-German sentiment even leading to the town of Bismark being renamed Collinsvale during the war.
Frank was born at Hobart in 1880 and was 35 when he joined up in 1915. He worked as a groom with the family’s horse-drawn transport business.
He served with the 20th Battalion in Egypt, France and Belgium, was killed in action near Flers on January 2, 1917. He was buried in the Guards' Cemetery, Lesboeufs, France.
Frank’s younger brother Arthur, born in 1881, was also working in the family business and was described as a cab proprietor when he joined the 40th Battalion in 1916, aged 35.
He was killed in action on October 13, 1917, at Passchendaele, Belgium, while carrying out his duties as stretcher bearer. He was buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery.
The Rometch business was continued by their brother George and it would grow to dominate tourist transport in the south of the state.
The firm provided vehicles to carry soldiers in welcome-home parades and supported the development of the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue on the Queen’s Domain in Hobart, where Privates Frank and Arthur Rometch are remembered at trees 26 and 336 respectively.
Should any reader have a photo of Frank Rometch to share, please contact damian.bester@news.com.au
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