Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#548 KING Thomas Alfred                                         5th Light Horse
 
Tom King was born at Goomburra near Allora on the Southern Downs around 1882. His family moved to Bryden in the Brisbane Valley in time for Tom to attend the one teacher school at Bryden.
Bryden was a farming community on the east bank of the Brisbane River a few miles across the river from Esk. The river crossing was often dangerous and people in the community chose to journey down river to a safer crossing at Fernvale. Most of the land farmed in the district was flooded under Lake Wivenhoe in the 1970s. Tom’s mother advised that Tom’s father drowned in the Brisbane River during a flood in 1894. Though only 12 years old, Tom probably took on more responsibility on the family farm. As a young man, Tom joined the local Light Horse Troop. He was a trustee of the local church and was also a member of the Legion of Frontiersmen
 
The Legion was established in 1910 as a patriotic paramilitary organisation that had grown out of the sentiments of empire at the end of the Boer War. It espoused the ideals of outdoor skills being fostered to aid in the event of war. Tom’s association with the Legion may have been the catalyst for him applying to be a special constable during the general strike of 1912. The strike grew out of a labour dispute between tramway employees and operators in Brisbane over the right to wear the badge of the Tramways Union. The dispute snowballed into a period of community disruption, culminating a general strike. The Queensland Government of the time legislated for the introduction of a special force to maintain law and order. There is a photograph in Queensland State Library collection that shows Pat Chaille from Esk and another man, who may be Tom King, mounted and armed. They wear the armband of the “specials.” It is unlikely that there was any call for the special constables in the Esk district.
 
Tom King made his way to Enoggera to enlist on 9th November 1914. He informed the recruiting officer that he was 32 years old, a farmer from Deep Creek. Tom named his mother, Sarah Ann King, as his next of kin. He was accepted into the AIF and after passing the riding tests, was added to the roll of “A” Squadron of the 5th Light Horse Regiment. Within the ranks of “A” Squadron of the 5th Light Horse, there were at least 12 others from Esk and the surrounding districts. The 5th Light Horse was a totally Queensland regiment and the unit’s nominal roll lists men with bush skills such as farriers, horse breakers and stockmen amongst the initial enlistments. The Light Horse was organised along the lines of British cavalry units using terms such as regiment instead of battalion, squadron instead of company and troop instead of platoon. On 12th December 1914, the 5th LHR with accompanying horses boarded trains at nearby Newmarket Station bound for Liverpool in Sydney.
 
The regimental war diary for this period describes the trains being unloaded at Wallangarra (due the difference in rail gauges, all goods and passengers had to change trains at the Qld/NSW border) and all the horses had to be dipped. The diary records a number of horses dying due to the dipping as well as a number being transferred to the vet hospital. Obviously, the dipping process must have been rather toxic and it is interesting to note that the same diary as the years progressed became more blasé about casualties, both human and equine. The regiment proceeded to Liverpool for a short period of reorganisation before entraining for Woolloomooloo docks where the regiment boarded the Transport Ship “Persic” on the 20th and 21st December. The embarkation roll shows Tom King had made an allotment of 3 shillings and sixpence a day to his mother.
 
Christmas 1914 was spent at sea in the Great Australian Bight and the “Persic” arrived in the harbour of Albany, WA on 28th December where other ships of the 2nd Expeditionary Force were assembled. The convoy sailed across the Indian Ocean without incident, although the regimental diary records a number of soldier’s deaths due to common diseases such as measles and mumps. Also, on the voyage more horses died due to the effects of the dip at Wallangarra.
 
The regiment disembarked in Alexandria in Egypt on 1st February 1915 and moved by train to the Light Horse Camps on the outskirts of Cairo. Finally, some serious training could be undertaken as there had been precious little time for this back in Australia. One manoeuvre that was practised was “Cossack Defence” where a party of three men would take up defensive positions while a fourth man held the horses in the rear. After firing a few rounds, all would mount up and gallop away. Patrolling and intelligence gathering became routine, although there was no sign of the enemy. Meanwhile the AIF infantry was practicing for the anticipated landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula in April.
 
When the landings at ANZAC did not go according to plan, the role of the Light Horse, which would have been given the task of wide-ranging patrols and attack across the peninsula changed. By early May, the new plan would see the Light Horse Brigades land at Gallipoli as infantry (something they had not trained for) and without their horses. The 5thLight Horse as part of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade landed at ANZAC on 20th May and began fatigue duties on the beach carrying water and supplies up to the forward positions on the heights.
 
The new arrivals would have witnessed an unusual sight on the 24th May when an armistice was declared across the front so that both Australians and Turks could cross into no man’s land to collect their dead for both humanitarian and sanitary reasons. Fighting resumed at 5:00pm that afternoon.
 
In early June the 5th LHR moved into the frontline at Chatham’s Post. The regimental diary records numerous casualties from Turkish artillery. On the 26th June, “A” Squadron was the spearhead for an attack on Turkish lines named the Balkan Pits. The regimental diary records that the men moved forward gallantly but fire from two British warships offshore fell short of the Turkish positions and amongst the Australians, and this plus artillery fire from the Turkish side contributed to casualties that ran to three pages in the war diary. Occupation of Chatham’s Post continued for most of July. In August, Tom was attached to the guard escort during the visit of Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, to the Anzac positions. He returned to Chatham’s post in the beginning of September.
 
The war diary for this period lists almost daily casualties from enemy fire. On 5th September, Tom was seriously wounded; sustaining compound fractures to a thigh and arm. The war diary states the wounds as severe. Tom was carried from the heights down to Anzac Cove and from there ferried out to the Hospital Ship “Salta”. Hospital ships were often hastily converted troop transports with very little in the way of advanced medical equipment or resources. Three days after his wounding, Tom King died of his wounds on the “Salta” on 8th September 1915 aged 32. As was the normal practice, the “Salta” cast off from her mooring buoy in the evening and sailed into deeper waters where a number of burials at sea were conducted by the ship’s master Mr Thompson.
 
A small parcel of Tom’s personal effects was sent his mother. The secretary of the Oddfellows Lodge at Esk wrote to the authorities requesting a death certificate so that Tom’s funeral benefit could be paid to Sarah King. Sarah wrote to the authorities regarding Tom’s medals on the traditional black bordered note paper. She was granted a pension of £2 per fortnight.
 
Tom King has no known grave. He is commemorated on the tablets of the Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing at Gallipoli. The memorial lists  960 Australians and 250 New Zealanders who were buried at sea in 1915.