A World War I link with Ned Kelly.

Private Frederick Arthur Foster, 17 Bn, 5th Brigade, 2nd Division AIF, who was killed in action at First Bullecourt on 15 April 1917, was a nephew of Ned Kelly. His mother, Kate Foster nee Kelly, was a younger sister of the famous outlaw. Ned Kelly is one of the best known of all Australians. It is hard to think of any other Australian of the Victorian age, apart from Nellie Melba, who is a household word in this country to this day. There have been three films made about the Kelly Gang, the first in 1906, and over one hundred books have been published. `As game as Ned Kelly' is one of our most widely used expressions.

Frederick Foster's death was one of many tragedies which affected the Kelly family. His maternal grandmother, Ellen Quinn, migrated from County Antrim, Ireland to Victoria in 1841 as a 9 year old child with her seven brothers and sisters. In 1850 she married John (Red) Kelly, an ex-convict from County Tipperary. Of the eight children of the marriage, the eldest, Mary Jane, died in childhood; Ned died on the scaffold in 1880; Daniel died in the Glenrowan siege in 1880; and Kate was drowned in the Lachlan River near Forbes, New South Wales, in October 1898 leaving four children, Gertrude, Maude and Frederick and a five month old baby, Catherine.

James Kelly, Ellen's third son by John Kelly, was in gaol during the Kelly Gang's rampage, 1878-1880. On his release from gaol, he lived with his mother until her death in 1923, highly respected in the district, eventually dying a bachelor aged 86 in 1946. On the death of his sister, Kate, he drove a buggy to Forbes intending to bring the four motherless children back to Greta in Victoria. However, the baby, Catherine, had died before he arrived. The three older children were reared by Ellen and Jim.

Frederick Foster

Frederick Foster's records show that he first enlisted in the AIF on 29 June 1915 in Melbourne. He was aged 26 years and one month and was a beekeeper living at Myrrhee, a hamlet about 50 kilometres south east of Benalla. His next of kin was his father, William Foster, whose address was c/o Mrs. D. Scott, Thirroul, NSW. Mrs. Scott was probably William Foster's sister. Frederick was thickset being 5ft 6 1/4 inches (170 cms) tall and weighing 10 stone 10 lbs (68 kilograms). His complexion was `fresh', his eyes blue and his hair brown. He has been described as `the most handsome boy that you could ever look at.' His religion was stated to be Presbyterian. Evidently he had followed his father's religion rather than that of the Catholic Kelly family in which he was reared.

Before enlistment, Frederick had served for three years with the 16th Light Horse at Benalla when performing part time military service, compulsory before World War I. With this background -- and like all the Kellys he must have been a fine horseman -- he was posted on enlistment to the 4th reinforcements for the 13th Light Horse at the depot located at Seymour, Victoria. On 10 February 1916 he is recorded as being on the `Deserters Roll.' What led him to desert, leave Victoria and move to NSW is not known but, without any attempt at concealment, he re-enlisted in the AIF at Goulburn, New South Wales, on 14 January 1916 and was posted to the 3rd reinforcements for the 55th Battalion. All the details on his second enlistment form are as given on his first enlistment in 1915. One can conjecture as to his reason for deserting from the Light Horse. Did his connection to the notorious Kellys become known and did he have to endure teasing or worse? In the' Kelly country' up to recent times those with connections to the Kellys were most reticent about it. No mention is made in his records of any punitive action taken against him for deserting from the Light Horse. With hindsight, his life may not have been lost in the War if he had stayed with the Light Horse. Their casualties, after Gallipoli, were very light compared to the slaughter endured by the Australian infantry in France and Belgium.

Foster must have been a generous young man. Of his daily pay of 6 shillings, he allotted 4 shillings to his aunt, Mrs. Scott; 1 shilling was deferred; and he managed on 1 shilling. The only links with the Kelly family found in Foster's army papers are reference to a letter from Mr J Kelly, c/- Broken River Hotel, Benalla `regarding gratuity' which was referred to the District Finance Office, 2nd Military District on 18 June 1920. `J Kelly' was James Kelly, Foster's uncle as noted previously. Another letter in Foster's papers is from a Bernard F Miller of Elsternwick, Melbourne in which enquiries are made about the death date of `my father's cousin, Frederick Foster.' The letter states that Foster's sister, Gertrude, married a Cavanagh and another sister, Maude, married a Hibbert. Miller notes that both the husbands served in World War I. Another letter filed in Foster's papers, a sad one perhaps indicating a romance, was from Alice Maher c/o Mrs S Kiely, Terminus Hotel, Wagga, dated 18 June 1917, in which she referred to a report in the Daily Telegraph of May 18th concerning an F A Foster killed in action on the 15th of April. `I wrote to his sisters and other relatives but they all seemed to be in doubt about it.' Alas, the Officer in Charge Base Records confirmed the death in a letter to Alice Maher dated 21 June 1917.

On 23 June 1916, Foster embarked at Sydney in HMAT Barambah which reached Plymouth on 25 August 1916. After training in England, he embarked on 28 February 1917 at Folkestone in SS Golden Eagle for France. He spent from 1 March until 24 March at Etaples, the huge transit depot hated by troops for the brutality of the instructors in the `Bullring' there. He did not join the 55th Battalion but was taken on strength of the 17th Battalion on 23 March. He had only 23 days with the Battalion before he was killed.

Lagnicourt

The 5th Brigade, including the 17th Battalion, on 13 April 1917 relieved the hard pressed 13 Brigade of the 4th Division. The 17th Battalion was located south of Bullecourt at Noreuil and Lagnicourt. On the morning of 15 April, 26 German battalions, the greater part of 4 divisions, without preliminary bombardment, as a surprise measure, attacked the positions of the 1st and 2nd divisions at Lagnicourt. The Australians fought desperately and repulsed the attack. It was in this action that Frederick Foster was killed. It is reputed that Frederick Foster's last words to the Anglican padre who bent over him were: `Kiss me Granny.' He had lived with Ellen and Jim Kelly since he was 9 years of age.

Foster's records state that he is buried in the vicinity of Lagnicourt but his grave is not marked. His name appears on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial where the names of over 11,000 Australians who died in France and have no known grave are recorded.

Two members of the AIF, whose fathers had close associations with the last days of the Kelly Gang, also lost their lives in France. Richard James Bracken, whose name also appears on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial, was killed on 19 September 1918 when serving with the 14th Battalion. Bracken was the son of Constable Hugh Bracken who, in 1880, was captured by Ned Kelly during the famous siege at Glenrowan. When the outlaw was finally overpowered, he pleaded for Kelly's life. In nearby Harbonnieres Cemetery rests Thomas Curnow, 57 Bn, eldest son of Thomas Curnow, the schoolteacher who was allowed by Ned Kelly to leave the Glenrowan Inn before the siege and then took the opportunity to stop the police train heading towards Glenrowan before it was blown up by explosives placed by the Kelly Gang on the railway line. Thomas Cumow jnr was killed action at Villers Bretonneux on 8 August 1918.

Sources

Blankfield, Alan and Gorfield, Robin S. Never forget Australia. N'oublions jamais L `Australie. Australia and Villers-Bretonneux 1918-1993.

Melbourne. Villers-Bretonneux 75th Anniversary Pilgrimage Project Committee. 1994. p. 128

Jones, Ian. Ned Kelly. A Short Life. Melbourne. Lothian. 1995. pp. 263, 336.

Mackenzie, K. W. The Story of the Seventeenth Battalion, A.I.F. in the Great War 1914-1918. Sydney, Shipping Newspaper, 1945, pp. 166-7.

The Oxford Companion to Australian History, p. 362.

I am grateful to Mr. David Butler of Darlingford, Sydney for information supplied on the 17th Battalion, AIF.