I have found little to tell about the life and death of Frank Roughton. His Army record does include a letter written in 1967 by one R W McKenzie, for the Deputy Secretary for Defence, in reply to a question from someone compiling a family tree. It explains the several mentions of "otitis media" (infection of the middle ear) in the pages of Franks records. He was prone to earache when a boy, but it was greatly aggravated by by his military experiences.
"During the Battle of the Somme in 1916 he became afflicted with ear trouble due to concussion. From the time of his discharge in 1917 he had frequent hospital treatment for this and he was admitted to Trentham Military Hospital in January, 1922. He died there on 5 February, 1922, and was buried at Nelson. His death was classified as attributable to his war service."
His ear infection produced deafness, one factor in his being discharged as medically unfit for further service. It would seem that, as well as his ear infection, Frank arrived back in New Zealand with another - gonnorrhea. For that reason, he was kept for some time on Otago Harbour's Quarantine Island with other solders in a similar condition.
Further information as to the progress of his infection is not available. But, for an ear infection to cause death, it is possible that it progressed to his brain. It must have been inevitable and uncomfortable, to say the very least.
Wakapuaka Cemetery, Nelson.
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