Frederick Arthur BURNETT #2423

Indigenous Australian, Frederick Burnett, 11th Light Horse Regiment

Fred Burnett was born in Brisbane in 1879, he was working as a contractor in Beerburum when he volunteered to join the first AIF in July 1917.

Initially assigned to reinforce the 52nd Infantry Battalion, he trained at the Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera, Brisbane, with a number of other indigenous enlistments, and embarked with them on board HMAT 'Ulysses' in December 1917 for Egypt.

This group of reinforcements later which became known as the Queensland Black Watch, trained at the 4th Light Horse Training Depot before joining their comrades in the field.

During his service with the Light Horse, Fred contracted Malaria and was hospitalised several times for treatment. He still suffered from its effects when he was repatriated home in March 1919.

Frederick Burnett was tragically killed in 1928.

Read more ...

• Service record: BURNETT, Frederick Arthur, National Archives of Australia
• Embarkation roll, Australian War Memorial
• 'Man found dead on verandah', Daily Standard, 15 August 1928 p.1
• Blog: Queensland Aboriginals in the 11th Light Horse Regiment
• One of the soldiers featured in SLQ’s HistoryPin Collection

Watch ...

• Queensland’s Indigenous Servicemen Digital Story and Oral 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.