Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Frederick John Webber, ex-pupil of Auburn North Public School, had completed eight months of an apprenticeship as a railway carriage builder with Richie Brothers of Auburn. Webber declared he was 19 years and 4 months when he enlisted on 29 November 1915. It may have been around his 20th birthday when he was killed in action at Fromelles on 20 July 1916.
Under previous military experience on his enlistment form Webber stated he had been ‘3 years cadets’ and ‘rejected by Citizens Military Force – short’. At 5’ 2” tall, Webber was accepted into the AIF and he sailed on the Star of England in March 1916.
On arrival in Egypt, Private Webber was allocated to the 56th Battalion. They moved off to the Western Front in France, arriving in the French port city of Marseilles on 29 June 1916. The battalion had a few weeks settling into the Nursery Sector in northern France before they were sent in to the one-day battle of Fromelles. When he was killed, Webber had been in the AIF for eight months.
Webber was buried in the Anzac Cemetery at Sailly-sur-la-Lys in the Nursery Sector. He was one of the youngest of the Auburn Memorial men to die in the war.
Webber's father was Auburn Alderman Ambrose Webber, a local auctioneer and estate agent who had been one of the founders of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce. Frederick was the second son of Alderman Webber to die in the war. Able Seaman Edward Wilmot Webber, 22, serving in the Royal Navy, had died on 10 June 1915 when the Royal Navy submarine HMTB 10 was lost at sea.
Frederick John Webber is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn North Public School Great War Roll of Honor
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
