Frank Williams gave his occupation as miner when he enlisted in August 1915. In fact, he was a third-generation miner as the extended Williams family were gold prospectors from the diggings outside Mudgee, Long Creek, Meroo, Windeyer and Clarkes Creek - not that far from where the first gold rush occurred in 1851. These places are now ghost towns but were bustling centres back in the mid-1800s.

Frank’s grandmother, Emma, successfully raised a family of twelve at these diggings. When she died in 1928, she had 239 descendants and her passing was reported in local papers:

One of Emma’s 62 grandchildren, Francis (Frank) James Williams was born at the Long Creek Meroo Diggings, youngest of nine. He was born on 8 December 1891 to Fanny Johnson and Emma’s oldest son George Henry Chick Williams. The family home was in a small gold mining village approximately 40 kilometers from Mudgee. Greig Williams, a great grandson of Frank’s brother, commented on the area where Frank grew up:

The majority of Windeyer recruits signed up in Bathurst but twenty-three-year-old Frank travelled to Lithgow instead when he enlisted in August 1915. Family researchers have assumed that he caught the train from Mudgee to Lithgow to visit his older brother George – seventeen years his senior – and signed up while there. Frank was unmarried but it is believed that he left a girlfriend behind, Marjorie McInnes.

In postcards and letters to family while training and on board the troopship heading for Egypt, Frank observed that the recruits’ mood seemed more like they were off on a picnic or other bit of adventure. His correspondence became more spasmodic and more censored once they arrived.

Little is known of Frank’s time at war beyond the broad brushstrokes of his battalions’ movements. He would have arrived in Egypt with the 4th Battalion before joining the newly formed 53rd Battalion in February 1916, a melding of Gallipoli veterans and fresh recruits like Frank. In June, the battalion left for France and on 19 July they were a part of the initial assault suffering grievous casualties - including Private Frank Williams, aged 24 years and 7 months.

Frank was listed as missing but when his name appeared on a German death list in September 1916 he was officially listed as killed in action. His identity disc was returned by the Germans. Generally, authorities returned the disc to next of kin (his father, George, in Frank’s case) but there is no notation on file whether this occurred with Frank’s disk. Details about how and where Frank died were never known.

After his death, Frank’s mother received a letter from the mother of another soldier who had been wounded at Fromelles. His mother reported that he and Frank had gone over the parapet together but that that was the last time he saw him.

The family and his girlfriend, Marjorie, were left to grieve his loss and to live with the uncertainty of not knowing. Family members say that his parents would always set an extra place at the Sunday dinner table just in case Frank would turn up. His sister, Clara Yavion (nee Williams), kept up that tradition for many years after her parents had passed away as the family always held out hope that, since no body was ever found, that he might alive be out there somewhere.

Greig Williams, one of many family members seeking to assist in identifying Frank said: