Francis Varcoe
Rank: Private
Service Number: 6170
Unit Served: 27th Battalion
Personal Details: Private Francis Alban Varcoe was born at Raukkan on the 16th October 1895. He was registered both as Auburn Jackson and as Auburn Varco, his parents are recorded as being Ebenezer Jackson and Sarah Varcoe.
Enlistment Details: He enlisted on the 23rd of August 1916 and was assigned to the 27th Battalion. He was 20 years and 10 months old. His complexion was dark, his hair black and his eyes were brown. He stood 5'7" tall and weighed 147 lbs.
Details of his role in the War: He embarked from Adelaide aboard the HMAT "Afric" on the 7th Novemebr 1916, arriving in Plymouth on the 9th January, 1917. He was taken on strength by the 27th Battalion in France on the 9th April that year.
He was Killed in Action on the 5th May 1917 at the Second Battle of Bullecourt.
Burial Details:He has no known grave and is remembered on the wall of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Brettoneux.
Interesting Material: Article from the The Register Newspaper (Adelaide) 19th August 1925:
POINT MACLEAY WAR HEROES.
An interesting ceremony took place at the Point Macleay Mission Station last Friday evening, when a memorial window was unveiled in the church by Brig-.Gen.S. Price Weir. Sixteen natives from the station enlisted for the war, and of them four (Cyril and Rufus Rigney, brothers, Alban Varcoe, and Millar Mack) were killed. The residents on the station have been contributing and collecting since then in order to raise an appropriate memorial to the four men. Their desires have at last been realized. A four-panel memorial window, bearing the names of the fallen, and the inscription, 'To the glory of God, and in sacred memory of our men who died for justice and freedom’ has been erected in the building which has been used for worship for many years. In addition the interior of the church has been thoroughly renovated and improved. The missioner (Mr. H. E. Read), who, after 20 years' service on the station, is retiring to take up mission work on Goulbourn Island, presided. He mentioned that the cost of the window and renovations had been £217, which sum with the exception of £5, bad been raised: After unveiling the window Brig.-Gen. Weir paid a testimony to the men of the station, some of' whom had served in the war under him. . , Mr. C E Taplin (President of the Aborigines' Friends' Association, and a son of the founder of the mission) gave an address, and Mr. G. G. .Hackett (Chairman of the repatriation committee of the district) and the Rev. E. J. Stacey (secretary of the Parkin Congregational Mission which now. controls the religious work at the station) also spoke. A feature of the proceedings was an address by Philip Rigney (grandfather of the two men who were killed), and solos by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley and Mr. Roland Carter, members of the station.
