Francis Hatton was born in Grasmere, in England’s Lake District, in December 1889. His parents, William Hatton and Mary Wilson, moved with their only child to Marsden in 1901 and ten years later the family was living in Blackpool, where Frank worked as a telephone electrician.
In early 1913 the Hatton’s made the journey to Western Australia and lived on Kingston Street, West Subiaco. Frank spend his week working as a mechanic and on the weekend played football for the Perth club, where spearheaded the attack across the 1914 and 1915 seasons.
Frank was 25 when he enlisted as a Private with the 28th Battalion in May 1915. He briefly saw action at Gallipoli before being struck down by dysentery and evacuated to Heliopolis, Egypt. On returning to duty in early 1916, he went absent without leave for four days and was awarded 48 hours hard labour.
The 28th Battalion were introduced to trench warfare in June when they entered the line near Armentieres, France, and the following month joined the fighting at Pozieres. In August, after being gassed and receiving a bullet wound to the scalp, Frank was evacuated to England and admitted to Brook War Hospital in London.
While recovering, Frank was granted permission to travel to Kirkham where he married Blackpool resident Clara Illingworth in October. He decided to remain in the north for a week with his wife and on returning for duty received 168 hours detention and forfeited 16 days pay for overstaying his leave.
Frank did not return to the Western Front. In October he was deemed not fully fit for active duty and sent to the No.1 Australian Command Depot, a convalescent and training camp. In late 1917 he was assigned guard duty at the Australian Imperial Force Depot headquarters in Tidworth, where he would remain until the end of the war.
By the time Frank returned to Australia with Clara in September 1919 they had two young sons, Frank and Frederick, in tow. The family took up residence on Aberdere Road, West Subiaco, and Frank found work in the telephone brank for the Postmaster-General’s Department.
Frank joined the Claremont Glebe club for the 1920 football season and played the two winters after with Perth. When Subiaco entered the league in 1923 Frank was quick to jump on board and remained for five seasons. In 1924 he and two clubmates successfully lobbied the local council to establish a football ground at Onslow Road.
Other than a short period in the mid-1930s when they resided in Busselton, where sons Frank and Frederick has settled, Frank and Clara lived the rest of their lives in Shenton Park (formerly West Subiaco). Clara was 63 when she passed away in April 1957; Francis Hatton was 59 when he passed away on 11 July, 1959.