People Australia

Francis Gerald Houston (1896–1916), c1915 photographer unknown

from Bank of NSW Roll of Honour

FRANCIS GERALD HOUSTON, son of Mr. James and Mrs. Sara L. Houston, was born at Horsham, Victoria, on 25th August, 1896. He was educated at the Hawthorn West State School, and later at the Melbourne High School and Bendigo High School. While in the school at Melbourne he was a member of the Champion Cadet Team of Victoria.

He entered the service of the Bank on 12th May, 1914, at Bendigo, and enlisted on 25th August, 1915.

Francis G. Houston left Australia in March, 1916, with reinforcements for the 7th Battalion, but on arrival in Egypt, joined the 57th Battalion, and served with it in that country.

He sailed with the battalion for France in June, 1916; proceeded to the Somme battlefield, and was present at the Battle of Fleurbaix in the following month. He continued to serve on the Somme until October, 1916, when he was wounded at Flers and sent to hospital in England for treatment. He had recovered from his wound and was on the eve of returning to France to rejoin his battalion, when he contracted congestion of the lungs and died on 8th December, 1916, aged twenty years and four months.