LCPL Frank Lanagan at Villers Bretonneux
Western Front Association Central Victoria BranchFrank LANAGAN was born on 25 August 1889 at Rupanyup, Victoria. He spent two years serving with the 19th Light Horse Regiment (LHR), of the Commonwealth Military Forces, enlisting on 28 August 1914 for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force, gaining the very low Regimental Number of 442.
He served on Gallipoli as an infantryman from 25 April to 19 September where he contracted enteric fever and was hospitalised in Malta and England. By August 1916 when he was fit for duty, the Gallipoli campaign was over and he was posted to the 13th Light Horse Regiment; the only LHR in France.
In April 1918 his Troop was allocated to the 15th Australian Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier ‘Pompey’ Elliott. The 15th and the 13th Brigades had tried to recapture Villers Bretonneux, but the morning after the counter-attack, 25 April 1918, Elliott was unsure of the location of his right flank and, therefore, whether the 13th Brigade was able to support him, and whether the Germans were still in a position to offer resistance in the village itself. 28 year-old Lance Corporal Frank Lanagan was ordered to find out.
Lanagan led the 4-man Light Horse patrol through the exposed openings between the Bois L’Abbe (wood) and the south-western fringes of the village and then to its east, until he found the 5th Brigade’s right flank. In the course of the patrol they encountered a German machinegun post, dismounted and secured the horses (i.e, the horse-holder stayed with them) and the three men rushed the German position, securing the gun and four German POW. In circumstances that are unclear, Lanagan then separated from his patrol, but shortly after returned with another German PoW. The four Horsemen, with their four horses, five German PoW and a captured machinegun, then returned to their base through the village itself, confirming that there was no organised German presence left in the village.
Lanagan successfully led three other patrols around this time. For these actions he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Five months later Frank Lanagan was sent home. Frank was one of the original ‘Anzacs’, having left Australia on 19 October 1914 and he had been away from home for four years. In September 1918, nearly 800 original ‘Anzac’ men were sent back on what was called ‘1914 Leave’ or ‘ANZAC Leave’. He arrived back in Australia two weeks after the Armistice.
In 1922 he married Hilda Clifford of Banyena, and they had a daughter and three sons. Sons John Henry died at 2 months (1925) and Francis Bruce died at age 6 (1936) when he fell from a jinker.
He continued his militia training after the war and, in November 1941, re-enlisted with the 26th Machinegun Regiment before being deemed unfit for Full Time Service. Undeterred, he directed his attention to helping local Air Training Corps cadets for their subsequent entry into the Royal Australian Air Force.
Frank Lanagan died on16 Nov 1946 of bowel cancer.
