Curtis FORD #4784

Indigenous Australian, Curtis FORD, 15th Infantry Battalion

Curtis Ford was born at Southport, Queensland in 1888 to Arthur Ford and Julia Sandy. Records show that after the death of his mother in 1896, Curtis and several of his siblings attended the Deebing Creek Aboriginal School. Curtis Ford was working as a stockman when he first enlisted in August 1915 aged 27 years, he named his eldest sister Lena Bostock (nee Ford) as his next-of-kin.

In March 1916 a warrant for his arrest was issued, after he had absconded from the camp in November 1915 and had not returned. He was given the opportunity to re-enlist later that month, however Curtis contracted pneumonia while at Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera which left him with a cough and pains in the left side of his chest. Curtis embarked for overseas in April 1916 but on arriving in Egypt in May he contracted bronchitis and was admitted to No. 2 Australian General Hospital, Alexandria. After several months, he was admitted to Ras-el-tin Convalescent Hospital and diagnosed with suspected tuberculosis.

It was then decided that he should be returned to Australia in October 1916 and be medically discharged. Curtis later succumbed to the influenza epidemic in 1919, and died in June 1919, he is buried at Gayndah Cemetery.

Read more ...

• Service record: FORD, Curtis
• Embarkation roll: 15th Reinf. 15th Infantry Battalion
• Roll of honour
• Image: The Queenslander Pictorial, 1 July 1916
• Many served: AIF Aborigines', Reveille, 30 November 1931, p.22
• Scarlett, Philippa. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander volunteers for the AIF: the Indigenous response to World War One. Fourth edition, Indigenous Histories, Macquarie, ACT, 2018
• One of the soldiers featured in SLQ’s HistoryPin Collection
• Queensland’s Indigenous Servicemen Digital Story and Oral History
• Centre for Indigenous Family History

The information in this blog post has been researched by State Library staff and volunteers, it is based on available information at this time. If you have more information that you would like to share or further research uncovers new findings, this post will be updated.