A YOUNG electrical engineer, Frank Leslie Lugton played all games in both seasons in which he played for Melbourne at half-back - 1913 and 1914. 

In 1913, he wore No. 32, and in 1914, he wore No. 17. 

Born on 4 November 1893, Lugton played his last game just a couple of months short of his 21^st birthday.

Also highly regarded as a cricketer, he had played five matches for Victoria before he enlisted. 

His best batting performance was 94 not out, and his best bowling stint was 3 for 45.

Lugton enlisted on 22 March 1915, and proceeded to Alexandria as part of the 1^st AIF’s 24^th Battalion. 

At No. 447, he was one of the first to volunteer his services, signing up as soon as the cricket season was over. He was appointed Lance Corporal, serving at Gallipoli and taking charge of a grenade party. 

Listed as suffering from shell shock at the close of the year, he was in action at Alexandria and Marseilles, and also underwent a stint in hospital in Malta, his shell shock accompanied by a ‘defective right eye’.  

The victim of a shell explosion which buried him for six hours, Lugton also narrowly missed being killed when a Turkish sniper shot out the bolt of his .303 rifle.  

A note on his records shows clearly the tumult of conflict - on 13 May 1916, while serving at L’Hallobean in France, it was stated that Lugton ‘Reverts to ranks at own request’.

The now Private Lugton was killed in action on 29 July 1916.

It was recorded that he was ‘Buried in the vicinity of Pozieres’. Back home, however, the response was much more effusive, with The Argus recording under the column ‘Casualties in France’:

Frank Lugton, of the Northcote Cricket Club, is another of the leading Victorian cricketers who has made the supreme sacrifice. He lost his life fighting in France. Lugton was considered by good judges to have been one of Victoria’s coming cricketers. He was selected by Mr. J. Worrall for several of the interstate colts’ matches, wherein he performed well, and he was a member of the last Victorian team to visit Tasmania, where his work with bat and ball was pleasing. He was one of the leading players of the Melbourne Football Club, his work on the half-back line being of a high order. His comrades of the Northcote Baseball Club wore armbands in their match against Williamstown on Saturday as a mark of respect to his memory. He was of a modest and retiring disposition, and was well liked by all.

So it was that the slow, sad transfer of parcels of personal effects took place, making their way from the AIF Kit Store in London. 

Gloves, a watch, fountain pen, coins … the relics of a young life, followed in succeeding years by the familiar trio of the British War Medal, Victory Medal, and 1914-18 Star. 

His name, a pointer to a much deeper story, took its place on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial, and his father, Charles, poignantly thanked the AIF authorities for all information received regarding recognition of Frank ‘… on behalf of the family, we … greatly value same.’ 

Charles even jotted a quick note on the receipt form for parcels of Frank’s effects, thanking the authorities ‘on behalf our late son.’

More tragedy was to befall the Lugton family, with Frank’s older brother, John Archibald - ‘Archie’ - dying in early August 1918, aged 29. 

Another of the ten Lugton children - Charles - survived the war. 

Frank and John, always remembered, are commemorated through a landmark - Lugton Street in Alphington.