Julie Reece Tours: Francesca's profile number 4: Frank Lampard OAM

Member of Veterans SA and the Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia brings Ngarrindjeri culture, knowledge and understanding to the 2019 Connecting Spirits Community Tour.

By Francesca Atkinson

Former schoolteacher Frank Lampard OAM of Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna descent joined Connecting Spirits, along with his wife Sandy, in the hope they would gain further insight into the World War One service of his cousins Private Cyril Spurgeon Rigney and Private Rufus Gordon Rigney. For many years the Connecting Spirits tours have held a strong connection to the Coorong towns of Meningie and Raukkan (Pt. McLeay), the town in which the soldiers grew up and where many of their relatives still live or have ties to today.

“I’m enjoying retirement and among other things, Sandy and I are able to take up opportunities to find out a little bit more about the history of Aboriginal participation, particularly in the First World War,” Frank said. “I guess that sort of comes out of my interest, which has almost become a passion of Veteran’s Affairs, specifically focused on Aboriginal Veterans.”

Frank was appointed a member of the 2019 Veterans Advisory Council in South Australia (Veterans SA), an organisation founded to support the well-being of South Australian veterans, which also advises the government of matters concerning veterans’ affairs, along with being a committee member of Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia.

These positions are highly regarded by Frank who has previously undertaken many other public service roles within Aboriginal and Veterans affairs, most recently including a former appointment as the Acting Chief Executive of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Before joining Veterans SA as a committee member, Frank became involved with the Reconciliation movement in South Australia to create a memorial to the service of Aboriginal veterans. This monument acknowledges Aboriginal men and women who fought during times of war, recognises their service and is a place for Australians to gain a better awareness of Aboriginal veterans.

“It was around 2007 or 2008, we actually recognised there didn’t appear to be much knowledge about the service of Aboriginal veterans. There wasn’t anything specifically to acknowledge them and so there was an Aboriginal woman who decided we would do something about that,” Frank explained. “That woman just had to be, Marjorie Tripp. She was also the first Aboriginal woman to enlist and serve in the Australian navy and Marjorie was pulling people together, as she kind of unearthed them from her research, supported by some members Reconciliation SA. Her dream was put a memorial in place somewhere in the Torrens Parade Ground (in Adelaide).”

As we were part way through the 2019 Connecting Spirits tour, Frank explained how his involvement in veterans affairs is very personal because while he is a veteran himself, he is able to reflect and use his ties to the Aboriginal and veteran communities to remember and honour his younger brother, Laurence who fought in the Vietnam War. Ironically, the two brothers were 17 months apart in age, which is very similar to the age gap between the Rigney brothers.

Once the dedication to the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial took place on 10^th November 2013, the original committee formed by Ms Tripp, decided to stay together and there they constructed a group known as the Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia (AVSA). The committee structured themselves very similarly to Reconciliation SA, in that, the organisation has Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal co-chairpersons.

“Marjorie Tripp approached me and said, would I join the committee she was putting together and of course I couldn’t help myself,” said Frank. “I just about broke my neck to get there though because, living in the back of my mind, is the loss of my younger brother Laurence. He enlisted around the time I got called up, he was younger than me and I sort of wanted his service to be recognised.”

Returning to the main reasons Frank and his wife joined the Connecting Spirits tour, he told of the few occasions his mother spoke of Cyril and Rufus Rigney, two cousins of his mother, but who are culturally known to Frank as his Uncles. Aboriginal culture is based on respect for elders and in some instances older members of the group are known as ‘Uncle or Aunty’, whether or not they are related in a way that many would see an aunt or uncle to be.

Private Cyril Spurgeon and Private Rufus Gordon Rigney were two brothers from Point McLeay in South Australia, who sadly never made it home from Belgium after being killed and wounded in action. Rufus later succumbed to his wounds. Over 100 years later Cyril still has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper, while Rufus is buried in Harlebeke New British Cemetery, also in Belgium.

“I am very proud to say they are related to my family and my mother actually mentioned them one or twice in my life, but I would have been pretty young in those days,” Frank outlined. “The only other time I can remember speaking about them with her, was after I came home from National Service. We had a considerable conversation about my brother, Laurence because he enlisted and you can consider reasons why Rufus followed Cyril, they were fairly close and my younger brother, actually wanted to join me in the Army as well.”

The two Rigney brothers inspired Frank as they have with former members of Connecting Spirits tours, because in their community of Raukkan, the brothers are seen as heroes. The local church has a window dedicated to those in the community who served during World War I (WWI). They are seen to many members of the community as ‘Uncles’ due to the cultural aspect, suggesting those living in or who are originally from Raukkan, hold a significant amount of respect for the Aboriginal boys who went off to fight in the war.

The entire 2019 group impressed Frank with their interest of Aboriginal service during WWI and in particular, the knowledge the group shared for Cyril and Rufus Rigney’s service, whether they were Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. By visiting the battlefields of WWI, the Connecting Spirits group was able to gain a clearer insight into what really happened in the countryside of France and Belgium from 1914 to 1918. No one can appreciate the gravity of the war just by completing Internet research and the Connecting Spirits tour takes an emotional, yet significant approach while touring former battlefields.

“The thing that has stood out for me is that there is so much interest by everyone in the group and it’s given me the opportunity to spice it up a little with that cultural detail,” Frank stated. “The kind of issues of status in our wider community, on a political level if you like, were both Cyril and Rufus would have enjoyed a much stronger cultural participation in our community than I ever had. Being able to observe first hand where they actually served, must have been a huge shock for them to be called up in an environment they never quite fully understood, yet at the same time how we relate to country and that is earth is mother to us.”

As communities throughout Australia responded to the call of enlistment, Aboriginal servicemen enlisted for the war, to fight under the Australian flag and for the so-called ‘motherland’, Great Britain. Even though they were not respected as owners of the land and faced more discrimination back home, a known record of around just over 1000 Aboriginal men enlisted to fight in the war. The real number is expected to be much higher, as after 1915 it became harder for Aboriginal men to enlist and most were categorised to be exempt from service.

Those who did enlist are not known to have contemplated the cultural differences, which were evident in society at the time. They wanted to be loyal to their country and showed a great amount of sacrifice in doing so.

“To actually pay my deepest respects to them is pretty high on the agenda, a pretty high responsibility I had to take, and I feel from that,” Frank says.

“Their whereabouts and the mystery of their participation is a lot clearer to me and I fully understand the perils of what they would have experienced. At the same time though, not having them come back home, to be in that position to commemorate them, in some small way is the most important thing.”

Both Frank and his wife Sandy are glad they joined the Connecting Spirits tour, as they gained further insight into WWI and found further connections of interest to each of their extended family’s history. Frank in particular has been able to share his knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal service during WWI, while bringing the cultural significance of the Ngarrindjeri people to the entire group and other people they met along the way.