DUBOIS, Fernand

Fernand was born in 1889 at Genappe, Belgium and could speak several European languages. He obtained a bachelor of engineering at Louvain University before he came to Australia in 1911. His occupation was Assistant Surveyor and he lived at Beaulieu near Inverell. Fernand became an Australian Citizen and took the Oath of Allegiance at Inverell in September 1913.

When Fernand enlisted in November 1914 he had just married his wife Eva in Brisbane. He became a Private with the 15th Battalion, 1st Reinforcements which sailed from Melbourne, Victoria, just before Christmas 1914. The Tamworth Daily Observer newspaper 15 September 1915 recorded that after being wounded once he wrote to his former employer saying '... I am on the eve of my second departure for the front to thank the Germans for the hole they drilled in me ...'

Corporal Fernand George Jules Marie Dubois was killed in action at Gallipoli, Turkey, on 8 August 1915. He has no known grave. His name is commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli, and on the Inverell Cenotaph. After the war he was one of the men for whom a memorial Kurrajong tree was planted in the park on the Glen Innes Road, Inverell.

Fernand's wife received his few remaining effects and War Medals. His Memorial Plaque and Scroll were sent to his mother, Laura, who with her daughter, had relocated to Scotland by 1916 having been a refugee in Holland when her home in Brussels was taken by the Germans. Fernand had brothers who fought with the Belgian Army.

Photo: Sydney Morning Herald (Trove Newspapers) 8 October 1915