LARKINS, Brian Lockwood

Brian Lockwood Larkins was one of twins born on 27 March 1899 to Margaret and William Larkins. He was the twin of Frank Lockwood Larkins and had two other brothers, William, born 1902, and Noel, born 1907, He also had two sisters, Beryl and Alice (died 1909). Along with his brothers, he attended Melbourne Grammar School. He enlisted for the war on 1 January, 1915, when he was fifteen and ten months old and was placed with the 1st Divisional Train of the A.I.F. 

The Divisional Trains were central to the logisitics of running a war. They had numerous tasks: to carry baggage; re-supply food, forage and water to the troops and the animals at the front; carry out maintenance tasks; support and supply all ammunition and other necessities. It was possible that the young Brian Larkins, who had lied about his age to be accepted into the army, was placed there as a way of protecting him from military engagement at the front. 

 Larkins embarked on HMAT A54 Runic on 9 February, 1915. Once in Egypt, however, he had to be hospitalised, suffering from pleurisy and heart disease. He was returned to Australia on 17 August, 1915, having served for only eight months. The NAA therefore does not have a digitised military record for him. 

His twin, Frank, also enlisted. He had left school to attend the new Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay, NSW, and was part of its first intake in 1912. He finished his course successfully in December 1916, when he would have been seventeen. In January, 1917, he proceeded to the North Sea where he served first on HMS Royal Sovereignty and then on HMS Vampire. From the Vampire he was moved to Portsmouth, to take part in a convoy led by HMAS Platypus, built at Portsmouth as a submarine depot ship for the Australian Navy. The Platypus was launched and was to lead a convoy of submarines back to Sydney, via the Suez Canal. Frank Larkins was appointed to submarine J2 as a Sub-Lieutenant. Although the convoy arrived safely at Sydney on 15 July 1919, Frank Larkins had been lost overboard at sea on 20 June 1919 in the Karimata Straits, off the west coast of Borneo. A twelve hour search of the surrounding waters failed to find him. He was twenty years old. His name is recorded at the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour (R1714609).

Brian Larkins returned to Melbourne and took up a job as Sales Manager. He married Lucie Eileen Jones, and their son, David Brian was born in 1922. The couple lived at 47 Montclair St., Elsternwick. In 1944, he was still working as a Sales Manager.

The 1940s must have been a painful period for him. His father, Walter Alfred Larkins, died in 1942; his mother Margaret, died in 1946; and his son, Brian, was killed in World War 2, dying at Brest on 22 January, 1944.

Brian Lockwood Larkins died on 13 June, 1957, and is buried at Carlton Cemetery.