Frederick Charles Sweeney

SWEENEY, Frederick Charles – – – SPC 1906

DoB:- – 10 December 1899, Bendigo, VIC

Father:- – James Joseph Sweeney

Mother:- – Isobel / Isabella, nee Babling

Fred Sweeney was a boarder at St Patrick’s from Bendigo.

Service No:- 21768

Rank:- – Private

Unit:- – AAMC (Australian Army Medical Corps)

Frederick Sweeney enlisted in the AIF on 17 September 1917. He was 18 years nine months old, five feet, six and a half inches tall, with a sallow complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was a single man, whose occupation was clerk.

He embarked from Adelaide on 6 August 1918 aboard the Gaika, disembarking at London on 13 October. Private Sweeney remained in the UK for the entire length of his war service. On 18 March 1919 he was detached from the AAMC Detail for duty with the AIF Head Quarters in London. Then, in May 1919 he was granted leave from 30 May to 30 August with full pay and subs, in order to provide secretarial services to the Boy Scouts Association, 26 Buckingham Palace Road, London.

A few weeks after his return to duty with the AIF, he returned to Australia aboard the Fort Denison on 25 September. He was discharged from service on 28 November 1919.

Fred returned home to Bendigo when he got back to Australia. He married Doris Mary Smith in 1929, when he was 30 years old. Together they had four children, and Fred was employed by the Public Works Department.

Frederick Charles Sweeney died on 30 July 1972, at the age of 72, after a heart attack. He was cremated at Springvale Crematorium, Victoria.