Biography

'A wound in the heart from a piece of shrapnel', which he received in the war over twenty years before, is said to have been the cause of the death of Frank Bolger.

He had been an inmate of the hospital for five weeks and was the owner of Bo-Peep Station, situated about sixty miles north of Sandstone. An ex-service man, the deceased was formerly a member of the Kalgoorlie Sub-Branch of the Returned Soldiers' League. He is believed to have had no relatives living and died intestate.

Frank enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces at Helena Vale, Western Australia, on 18 November 1914. At the time, he was 35 years and 6 months of age. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and had a scar two inches long on the crown of his head. He was of dark complexion, with grey eyes and black hair. He received a bullet in the chest on 30 August 1915 at Gallipoli and was sent to Malta for hospitalisation before eventually embarking for Australia at Suez in April 1916. The wound was referred to as a 'bullet to the chest' and also as 'shrapnel to the left lung'. The last Imperial communication was in October 1924 to him at an address in Wiluna.

Frank's parents were married in 1863 in Victoria (Marriage Registration 3241/1863). Their children included: Alfred Leear born 1864; Julia Mary born 1868; Henry Leear born 1870; Laura born 1873; Beatrice Mary born 1876; Frank Leear born 1878. The story of Henry Leear also appears in this website.