Frank Hussey
HUSSEY, Bertram Frank (Frank) BE MIEAust (1907-1985)
Frank Hussey was born in Menzies, Western Australia on April 26, 1907, the only son of medical practitioner, Dr Bertram Fowler Hussey and his wife, May Elizabeth La Roche Hussey, nee Wesche.
In 1911, the family moved to Toodyay where Dr Hussey had been appointed District Medical Officer. Frank’s secondary education was at Guildford Grammar from 1920 to 1923. He completed his Leaving Certificate in 1923.
He entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in February 1924, aged 16 years 10 months, the minimum age for admission. He graduated from the college in December 1927, first in his class of 14, winning the Kings Medal, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He then completed a Bachelor of Engineering degree at Sydney University in 1930.
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From 1934 to 1939 he was attached to the Department of the Interior and in September 1935, with the rank of Lieutenant, he was transferred to Rottnest Island to supervise the building of the railway from the jetty to Oliver Hill and preliminaries for all the works on the island. Later promoted to Captain he became Engineer-in-Charge on Rottnest for the Department of the Interior.
On March 3, 1935, he married Hilda Jean McCue on Rottnest Island and they had two children. In March 1947 he divorced Hilda and later that year married Lilian Jesse Rae Wilson.
At the end of his service on Rottnest in April 1940 he was promoted to the rank of Major and was appointed Chief Instructor at the School of Military Engineering (Fortress Wing), Georges Heights, Sydney NSW. During the war years he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and in 1955 he was Chief Engineer at Victoria Barracks, Sydney.
He retired from the army in 1960 with the rank of Brigadier and immediately joined the Major Construction and Hydraulic Undertakings Branch of the Public Works Department, Western Australia. From 1960 to 1963 he was based in Kununurra supervising the construction of civil works of the Ord River Diversion Dam, the first stage of the Ord Irrigation Project. He was subsequently co-author, with R J Wark, of an Interim Design Report into the Main Ord Dam, published in 1968.
Both Frank and his wife Rae were keen WA Bridge Club members. Frank was a President of the club and Rae a Life Member.
Frank died on May 11, 1985 aged 78. His second wife, Rae, survived him, by another 26 years, living to be 100 years old.
References:
Cumming Papers
The Leader, 27.1.1928, p7
Northam Advertiser, 19.1.1929, p2
Ord River Diversion Dam EHR Nomination Rev 2
Rottnest Island WWII Coastal Defence Facilities Program Booklet
TRUMPS PLUS, Winter 2011, Vol 4, issue 2, p. 32.
