Thomas Henry FORD

FORD, Thomas Henry

Service Number: 4655
Enlisted: 18 October 1916
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 31st Infantry Battalion
Born: Katanning, Western Australia, 12 September 1894
Home Town: Millmerran, Toowoomba, Queensland
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Farmer
Died: Killed in Action, Polygon Wood, Belgium, 26 September 1917, aged 23 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient), Millmerran War Memorial
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World War 1 Service

18 Oct 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4655, 31st Infantry Battalion
23 Dec 1916: Involvement Private, 4655, 31st Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Demosthenes embarkation_ship_number: A64 public_note: ''
23 Dec 1916: Embarked Private, 4655, 31st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Demosthenes, Sydney

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Biography contributed by Faithe Jones

He was the oldest of two sons born to Thomas Henry Ford (Snr.), a labourer, and Mary Maher, whose Aboriginal name was Jeelukan.

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Thomas was the eldest of two sons of Thomas Henry Ford Snr (born 1869 at Katanning in WA) and Mary (Alma) Yeelcan/Eigel (born 1878 at Katanning in WA), Thomas was a Farmer and Mary an Indigenous woman.

In 1915 Thomas was a Labourer at Milmerrin on the Darling Downs in QLD when he married Elizabeth Hagan (born 1897 at Grass Tree Creek in Yandilla on the Darling Downs in QLD). Thomas enlisted in the AIF at Toowoomba, QLD in October 1916, and served as a Private (Service No:4655) with the 31st Infantry Battalion. In August 1917 Thomas was with the 31st Battalion at Racquinheim in Northern France, and in September was near Polygon Wood when he KIA by a shell explosion. Thomas was reported MIA, and it was 12 months before Elizabeth received confirmation that he had died on 26 September 1917. Private Hudson (Service No:3823) stated 'I saw him killed by a shell whilst we were at Polygon Wood. He was buried where he fall by a party from the company. A temporary cross was erected on the site', (Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau). Thomas' Brothers-in-Law - Henry (Service No:3569) and James (Service No:4549) also served in WWI.

Thomas left behind a young son. Elizabeth remarried in 1922 and died in 1974.

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