Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Frank Brady – Service Number originally 1926, amended to 54393 – was born at Timaru, and enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on 23 January 1915 at Liverpool, New SouthWales. Thirty-five years old, a plate layer for the Railways, and single, Frank nominated his mother as next-of-kin – Maggie Brady, 87 Frances Street, Glebe. Frank Brady would appear to be Francis Henry Brady born on 22 December 1880 at Timaru, the younger son of Patrick Smith and Margaret (Maggie, née Craig) Brady. Patrick and Maggie had married in 1875 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the first of their four children was born in 1876 at Dunedin, three thereafter at Timaru. Patrick Brady was a police constable stationed at Timaru in 1878 through to August 1882, when he was committed to Sunnyside Asylum. Patrick Smith Brady died at Christchurch in September 1883, aged 40 years.

Mrs Brady conducted a boarding house in Dunedin, where a fire broke out in March 1888. The house and possessions were mostly destroyed, but there was no evidence to prove whether the fire was wilful or otherwise. Mrs Brady had only two children at the house in Dunedin. This poses more intrigue. Little Francis Henry Brady, son of the late Patrick Smith Brady, had died on 25 December 1883 in Christchurch, aged 3 years. The North Otago Times of 5 September 1893 relays a request from the Belfast Weekly News of 8 July 1893 – “A Home paper says: Mrs Craig, 76, Albertbridge Koad, Belfast, Ireland, is very anxious to hear from her daughter, Mrs Maggie Brady, whose address in June, 1887, was No. 1, Chapman’s Terrace, Stuart Street, Dunedin, and whose husband, Patrick Smith Brady, was previous to that on the police force in Dunedin.”

Did Leo Patrick Brady, the brother of Francis, assume the name of Frank, enlisting and dying by that name? Leo was born on 3 September 1878 at Timaru. He was admitted to Christchurch Normal School in March 1884, and afterwards was at Dunedin Normal School.

Frank Brady, 1st Battalion A.I.F., died on 11 March 1937 and was buried at Rookwood General Cemetery, Rookwood, New South Wales. The death registration records his parents as Patrick Smith and Maggie. His mother, Margaret Brady née Craig, of 87 Frances Street, Glebe, died in November 1932.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [x 2] [30 March 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [22 April 2020]; NSW Death record (NSW Registry online) [22 April 2020]; Find a Grave [22 April 2020]; School Admission records [22 April 2020]; South Canterbury Times, 11 August 1882, Timaru Herald, 12 August 1882, Star, 27 December 1883, Otago Daily Times, 14 March 1888, North Otago Times, 5 September 1893 (Papers Past) [22 April 2020]; Belfast Weekly News, 8 July 1893 (Google search) [22 April 2020]; Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 1932, 11 March 1937 (Trove) [22 April 2020]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.