Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Frank Pickering (Snr), like many men and women in the late 19th century, worked for the railways. He had come to Australia as a child from Leamington in England. He and his Australian wife Kate had 13 children, though not all survived infancy. They moved around frequently, as was typical of railway families in those pioneering days.
Frank and Kate’s eldest son, Frank Hessell Pickering, was born in Newtown. Another son, Roland Taaffe Pickering, was born in Cootamundra. In 1904, Frank (Snr) was Station Master at Cessnock. Shortly after the family moved to Auburn and Frank (Jnr) and Roland were enrolled in Auburn Public School. Initially the family lived at Railway Reserve, Auburn, but by the time Frank (Jnr) and Roland enlisted, the family was living in Vaughan Street, Lidcombe.
The first son to enlist was Roland, 20, a blacksmith’s striker in the Clyde Railway Yards. He enlisted on 28 August 1915, six days before his brother, Frank (Jnr), 23, a telegraphist working in the NSW Parliament. Travelling to France via Egypt, the brothers ended up together as signallers in the 3rd Battalion. About a year after enlistment, and after only a few months at the Front, both brothers were killed in action in the fierce fighting around Pozières and Mouquet Farm in August-September 1916. Frank's body was never found and Roland's grave could not be found after the war.
In Australia, the names of the Pickering brothers are on the Auburn War Memorial, the honour rolls in Auburn Public School, the Municipality of Auburn Honour Roll 1914-1919 and in the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial Canberra. They also appear on the Cessnock War Memorial. It is thought that the brothers may have spent some school years there when their father was Station Master at Cessnock and the Cessnock Public School may have put the brothers’ names forward. Overseas, their names are inscribed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.
Parents Frank and Kate had passed away by the time of the Second World War. Another of their sons, NX7129 James Alexander Pickering, 43, was living in Auburn with his wife Rose and two daughters when he enlisted for service. He joined the 8th Division and died in Borneo in March 1945, either in a Prisoner of War Camp or on one of the first Sandakan Death marches. James had been serving with the 2/20th Battalion.
As with his brothers in the First World War, James' body was never found. His name is on the Auburn War Memorial and the Sandakan Memorial in Burwood Park, Burwood.
Roland Pickering is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Public School First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn Boys Public School Great War Honour Roll
- Cessnock War Memorial
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
