Private Frederick Owen Werndly
- Rank
- Private
- Service number
- 4090
- Unit
- 32 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Died of Wounds
- Place of death
- 4 British CCS Pernois, France
- Date of death
- 1 August 1918
- Age
- 23
- Plaque number
- M333A
- Co-located plaques
- M333 - PTE Arthur Werndly
- Dedicated by
- Family on 12 February 2022
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Frederick Owen Werndly was born in Footscray Melbourne, Victoria in November 1895 to parents Henry and Martha Werndly. Frederick was one of ten siblings.
It is believed the family arrived moved to the Armadale area of Western Australia around 1897. The took up a farm was situated on Fremantle Road, later called Forrest Road. Arthur’s father Henry died in 1906 aged 54 years.
Frederick accompanied his older brother Arthur when he moved to Dowerin in the central wheatbelt of West Australia to take up farming.
Frederick enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force in June 1916 where he was originally allocated to 11 Battalion before been transferred to 32 Battalion. He embarked from Fremantle in October 1916 arriving in England in December 1916.
While in England he conducted further training before proceeding to France to join his battalion in March 1917.
He joined his Battalion in the field, spending his time repairing roads at a location called Rose Trench near the French villages of Grevilliers and Bapaume.
By May 1917, Frederick participated in the follow up operations from the second battle of Bullecourt near the village of Lagnicourt conducting patrol duties.
In September to October 1917, 32 Battalion moved to Belgium where it was involved in the Third Battle of Ypres. Frederick missed the action at Polygon Wood as he was hospitalised with trench fever and influenza re-joining the battalion in December 1917.
In early 1918, Frederick returned to France. In August 1918 the allied offensive had commenced to push the Germans back from Villers Bretonneux, where Frederick returned to the frontline.
On the night of 29-30 July 1918, Frederick was with his battalion conducting an attack on the German trenches near the village of Morlancourt. It was during this attack that the battalion sustained heavy German shelling, where he was wounded in action, receiving shrapnel wounds.
Frederick was evacuated to the Number 4 Casualty Clearing Station where he succumbed to his wounds on 1 August 1918.
Private Frederick Owen Werndly, service number 4090 of 32 Battalion, died of wounds in France on 30 July 1918. He was 24 years of age.
He was buried in the Pernois British Cemetery north of Amiens, France and the inscription on his headstone reads:
‘in memory of my loving son not lost but gone before’.
He is also remembered on the Western Australian State War Memorial and his roll of honour is in Armadale, Western Australia.
His plaque is placed alongside that of his older brother Private Arthur Werndly of 46 Battalion.