THE EMERGENCE of a medal awarded by the VFL to Leo Lafranchi in the Carlton Premiership year of 1938 has helped perpetuate the memory of a little-known reserve grade ruckman whose life was tragically cut short in wartime.
The Lafranchi medal has been in the keep of Arron Taylor, a resident of Southern Queensland. Taylor said that he inherited the item following the passing of his grandmother more than 20 years ago.
“The medal was in a box of things my grandmother left me,” Taylor said. “I have no idea how she came to get the medal and I talked to relatives long lost who could shed no light. One possibility is that my grandmother knew the Lafranchi family in the days when she lived in Stanhope.
“I’ve had it a long time, I don’t display it and I’ve taken care of it.”
The medal’s recipient, Leo Lafranchi, was born in the Victorian gold-rush era town of Chiltern in 1914. Lafranchi was known to have plied his footballing craft with Fawkner, Brocklesby in the Riverina and finally neighbouring VFA outfit Coburg, before being granted a clearance to Carlton in April 1938.
The club’s 1938 Annual Report lists a total of 31 players, amongst them Captain-Coach Brighton Diggins, as having represented the Blues at senior level in that landmark
season, with a further 15 players, Lafranchi included, also listed despite not having earned senior selection.
Wearing the No.16 on his back, Lafranchi only managed a handful of reserve grade games for Carlton through 1938 and ’39 – yet his name is engraved into the reverse side of the ’38 Premiership medal, which suggests all members of the Carlton playing squad were so honoured for contributing to Carlton’s first flag in 23 years.
In May 1939, Lafranchi was granted a clearance and returned to Coburg City Oval. His career with the Lions would span the 1939 and ’40 seasons, and net him 45 senior games... until war intervened.
Fast forward to July 1940, and Lafranchi, then 26, single and a motor assembler by profession, enlisted with the Australian Army in Royal Park (when the photograph appearing with this story was first captured).
A year later, Pte Lanfranchi of the 2/29 Australian Infantry Battalion boarded a Singapore-bound troopship, and disembarked in mid-August.
He would be dead within six months.
In January 1942, following the Battle of Muar, Pte Lanfranchi was amongst the wounded Australian and Indian soldiers left behind by withdrawing troops. The men, now Prisoners of War, were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to surrender all of their belongings including their clothes. They were then beaten, tormented and denied food, water and medical attention.
At sunset on the night of January 22, 1942, Lafranchi and his fellow soldiers – 145 in all - were roped or wired together in groups and led into the jungle at Parit Sulong. There they were shot with machine guns, doused with petrol and set alight. Only Lieutenant Ben Hackney and Pte Reginald Wharton survived, having feigned death throughout the barbarity.
Pte Leo Lafranchi – the boy from Chiltern who tried his luck with Carlton at Princes Park - was just 27 years old when he died. His name, and the names of all his fellow Prisoners of War who lost their lives, are set in stone at a memorial at the Kranji War Cemetery, 22 kilometres north of Singapore – and the ’38 Premiership medallion bearing his mark also serves as a salient reminder of the budding Blues ruckman.
Taylor said that circumstance had now forced him to avail the Lafranchi medal for sale.
“I’m at the stage where id like to sell the medal. I don’t have any relatives to give it to and it doesn’t mean a lot to me now,” Taylor said.
“I’m hoping that the medal will find a home for someone who would really appreciate this historic item - maybe a Carlton person who believes its best home is the club.”
Arron Taylor welcomes anyone who may be interested in purchasing the Lafranchi medal to contact him on 0491 263680. Serious bids only.
