Obituaries Australia

Frederick Oatley, c.1916

Hermes, October 1919, p 119

Was born in 1884. He spent his early years on his father’s station, and entered the University in 1903, going into re­sidence at St. Paul’s College.

He studied Arts and Medicine for four and a half years. After marriage in 1908, he decided to abandon medicine and go back to the land. In 1909 he bought the station at Umeralla, near Cooma, and here he re­mained until the outbreak of war. Leav­ing Australia as a Captain in the 6th Light Horse, he gained his majority in Egypt, and went to Gallipoli, a fort­night after the landing. Here he was continuously under shell fire until in­valided, a month before the evacuation. He was sent to Australia, but returned to Egypt in July 1916, and volunteered for Infantry service in France. For twelve months he was second-in-command and temporary commander of the 54th Battalion, and on the first of January, 1918, after a brilliant course at a Senior Officers’ School at Aldershot, he was ap­pointed Commander of the 56th Bat­talion. He was severely gassed at Villers Brettoneux, and was sent home to Aus­tralia. He appeared to have recovered, but the poison was still there, and a chill brought about his death, on the 28th March, 1919, at the age of thirty five.