Frederick Sainty was born in Newtown NSW on 7 December 1897, one of twelve children to James Sainty and Louisa Gregory. He was educated at Fort Street High School and Sydney Technical College.

An electrical engineer, he enlisted in Sydney on 16 September 1915. He gave his father’s address at Nami-Ko Miller Street Haberfield.

The 1st Field Company Engineers 12th reinforcements left Sydney on 11 December aboard HMAT Mooltan.

In Egypt, he had two instances of illness on 2 April 1916 and 24 May. He embarked for Marseilles with the British Expeditionary Force, disembarking on 29 June.

Frederick lost his life on the second day of the Battle for Fromelles on 20 July 1916. The circumstances regarding his death were recorded by four statements from fellow soldiers. The statements are available on the AIF Project website.

The statements are listed below.

Statement, 2436 Sapper R.C. Sweeney, 14th Field Company Engineers, 8 January 1917:

'He was killed by machine gun bullet on the date reported. Several of his mates saw his body including some who had been tent mates with him from March until the date of his death. Some letters and a photo were also taken from his pockets and forwarded to his people.'

Second statement by Sweeney, 1 February 1917:

“The only information I can get here is that he was either not buried, or else was buried as an unknown soldier. On the date he was killed we were in a big raid and had a god many killed and wounded and in some instances the dead had to be left so that the wounded could be brought in. Your inquiry places me in an awkward position as I have told his people that he was buried near a place called Fromelles. That was where he was killed. I did that for their peace of mind.'

Third statement, 5022 Sapper A. Sarfaty, 14th Field Company Engineers, 15 February 1917:

‘We were in action on the Fromelles front on the night of 19th July. We went over with the 3rd wave. Sainty was killed by shell in the support line before went over. I believe his body was buried either at Fleurbaix or Baestmair but cannot be certain.'

Fourth statement, 3747 Lance Corporal G.M. Bywater, 14th Field Company Engineers, 5 February 1917:

'Sapper Sainty was very popular in the company, sometime previous to the 19th July he had been entrusted with the important duty of despatch carrying, also about a week before the fight he had the offer of a position, which would have kept him away from the fighting, also which carried two stripes. Thinking as a young soldier it was his duty to go through the fight with his comrades he stayed. Of the small party Sapper Sainty was in, all except one were killed or wounded. I couldn't say for a fact, where our comrade was buried; but I think it as at Sailly close to Estaires.'

On 3 September 1920, Frederick’s father wrote to the Australian Graves Services to establish exactly where his son was buried. It was not until 4 August 1922 that his father received notification that Frederick’s actual burial place could not be located.

Frederick has no known grave and is remembered at V C Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial in Fromelles France.

V.C. Corner Cemetery was made after the Armistice. It contains the graves of 410 Australian soldiers who died in the Attack at Fromelles and whose bodies were found on the battlefield, but not a single body could be identified. It was therefore decided not to mark the individual graves, but to record on a memorial the names of all the Australian soldiers who were killed in the engagement and whose graves were not known.

The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, was built to commemorate nearly 1,300 Australian casualties, however since then many have subsequently had graves identified for them (in particular as a result of the excavation of the Pheasant Wood mass grave site in 2009), so today, it is the point of commemoration for 1,100 Australian casualties (CWGC).

Frederick is also remembered on the Canley Vale Public School WW1 Roll of Honour, Chippendale Substation Staff NSW Government Tramways Honour Roll, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Haymarket Substation Staff of NSW Government Tramways Roll of Honour, Petersham Fort Street High School Great War Honour Roll and Sydney Technical High School WW1 Roll of Honour.

Aged 18 years, 7 months and 13 days Frederick was the second youngest enlistee from Haberfield to lose his life.

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=265498
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8074590
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15761111
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15682714
https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1051188/document/5638859.PDF