Francis Esdale “Frank” Schryver was born on 31st October 1888 in Perth to his American father Sylvester Francis Schryver (1852-1916) and Australian mother Isabella (nee Fleming: 1863-1890). Known as “Snow”, he lived at 89 First Avenue, Mount Lawley from around 1909 when the house was first built, until around 1920 when he moved to 20 Murchison Terrace, East Perth.

Frank was an excellent swimmer and went to England in 1912 to compete in the King’s Cup life-saving event where he came third. He was afterwards invited to join the Australian Olympic team to become Western Australia’s first Olympian. He swam in the heats of the 200 and 400 metres breaststroke at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.

Frank enlisted in WWI when he was nearly 24 and had been working as a painter. He left Australia in December 1914 to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Forces in Gallipoli on 24th of April 1915. He was made Corporal in March 1916 and a couple of months later left to join the British Expeditionary Forces in France. He was sent to the 13th Field Ambulance Brigade as a stretcher-bearer with the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital for much of the war. In June 1917 he was promoted to Sergeant in the field in France. Two months later he was awarded the Military Medal and in December of the same year was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of a bearer subdivision. He tended the many wounded without adequate protection from early dawn till dusk, under heavy shell fire. When a shell struck a cupola in which he was sheltering, killing one man and wounding and burying five others, though badly shaken, he, unaided, under incessant shelling, succeeded in digging out these five men, and after tending their wounds obtained stretcher squads for their evacuation." In April 1918 he was wounded with a severe gunshot wound to his scalp in Rouen and sent to England for treatment and early return to Australia. He was discharged from the forces in November 1918 as medically unfit with a depressed fracture to the head.

After returning to Perth, Frank married Rachel Martha Smith (1895-1988) in 1919 and went on to have three sons: Francis (1919-1950), Kenneth (1921-1983) and Stanley (1927-2023).

As if one war wasn’t enough, Frank enlisted in WWII on 21st June 1940 and served in the Citizen Military Forces, whilst his son Francis served in the Royal Australian Navy. Frank died in East Perth on 3rd February 1965, and his wife Rachel died in Bentley on 17th March 1993.