Frederick Albert BAULCH
Service No. 69, Private, 1st Anzac Cyclist Battalion
The British New Army establishment that the AIF was reorganised under in 1916 provided for a company of cyclists for each Division. When they got to France, they were reorganised as Corps troops, with a Battalion for each Corps. There were two ANZACs at this time, hence two Corps.
Only nineteen, Fred Baulch was living with his family in Day Street, Bairnsdale when he joined up two weeks after war was declared. He embarked for overseas with the 4th Light Horse Brigade on HMAT Wiltshire on 19 October 1914.
Fred served at Gallipoli, in Egypt and in France, enduring all the hardship and illness of army life, including dysentery, scabies and tonsillitis. He was transferred to the 4th Division Cyclists in Egypt on 27 April 1916 and later, in France, to the 1st Anzac Cyclist Battalion.
On 28 October 1917 Fred was wounded in action, suffering a gunshot wound to his left foot. He was transferred to the Tankerton Hospital at Whitstable in England, where his left leg was amputated below the knee.
After months of rehabilitation in England, Private Baulch returned to Australia on the hospital ship Kanowna and was discharged from the army in August 1918. Having served five years in the AIF, he was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. Fred was living in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg in 1932.