Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Lativico Fiaschi and Clarissa Fiaschi of Florence, Italy

Husband of Amy Fiaschi on Tizzana Vineyard, Windsor, NSW

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

As a result of the Boer War he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Volunteer Officers Decoration, Queen's Medal and clasps, Menetioned in Despatches(twice)

In the 1897-98 War he was entitled to wear the foreign medals of St Mauris and St Lazarus 5th class (Italy); Crown of Italy 4th Class and the 1914/18 Italian Red Cross

Tommaso "Thomas" Henry Fiaschi was born on 31st May 1853 at Tizzana, Tuscany, Italy.  He was the eldest child and son of 4 children born to Lodovico Fiaschi, a professor of mathematics at the University of Florence, and his English-born wife Clarissa Fisher, who had tutored the children of Prince Corsini of Florence.  

He enrolled at the university as a medical student and before completing his studies, came to Australia at the age of 21 where he set up practice at Cooktown QLD during the gold rush.  He then became a ‘house surgeon’ at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, but after just a few weeks of working there his employment ceased abruptly because of his relationship with a nurse named Catherine Anne Reynolds who also worked at the hospital.  She was also known as Sister Mary Regis, an Irish Catholic Nun.  Thomas was 6ft tall and handsome and Catherine was 3 years older than Thomas.  They caused a scandal when they were married on 19th February 1876 at Bethel House North Sydney NSW by Congregational rites.  Catherine went by the name of Kate and she was the only Nun to have left the Sisters of Charity so consequently, she was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.  After their marriage Thomas and Kate settled in Windsor NSW.  This afforded them enough anonymity to begin their married life and to start a medical practice which they set up initially in the Macquarie Arms Inn, Thompson Square, then moved a little down the hill into what became known as ‘The Doctor’s House’ which is still located in Thompson Square today.

In August 1877 they travelled to Florence, Italy, where Thomas completed his studies at the Universities of Pisa and Florence and graduated with the degrees MD and ChD in 1878.  While in Florence their first son, Ludovico, was born with severe mental disabilities.  They returned to Windsor NSW permanently in 1879 where he developed both his profession and his interest in agriculture.  The family increased with the births of Piero in 1879 and Carlo the following year.  In 1882 Thomas became a citizen of Australia and bought a 230 acre property at Sackville, turning 54 acres of it into a vineyard and called it ‘Tizzana’ after the village in Italy where he was born.  From 1879-1883  he was surgeon to the Hawkesbury and Benevolent Society Hospital at Windsor.  In 1883 Thomas moved his practice to Phillip Street Sydney, where 5 more children were born but 3 died in infancy with Clarissa and Eleonora surviving.  In 1887 Thomas built the Tizzana Winery on the Sackville property which is still operating today. 

Thomas began his military career in 1891 when he joined the NSW Army Medical Corps with the rank of Captain.  He served with the NSW Lancers and in 1894 he was appointed surgeon at Sydney Hospital.  In 1896, aged 43, he served with the Italian Army as a surgeon during the Abyssinian war.  He wore the uniform of the NSW Lancers, complete with feather plume and double red stripes on the breeches, thus being the first one to wear the uniform in war.  For his services in this war he was appointed Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell'Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (Knights Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus) and the Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia (Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy).  He visited family in Italy then returned to Australia via the USA where he studied advances in aseptic and abdominal surgery.  In 1897 he moved his practice to 149 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

When the Boer War broke out in South Africa in 1899 he enlisted with the Army Medical Corps as a Captain and commanded the NSW 1st Field Hospital with General Hutton's brigade in South Africa.  His son Carlo, a medical student at the time, also enlisted and served with his father in the NSW Lancers in South Africa.  They embarked from Sydney on the 28th October 1899 on the SS Kent.  Upon arrival in South Africa Thomas was promoted to Major. 

On 27th February 1900, at Paardeberg, Thomas led four stretcher squads into Boer trenches after an attack by Canadian infantry had moved on.  However he noted a number of armed Boers were still very much alive.  Simultaneously the Boers saw a large number of soldiers wearing British-style uniforms jumping into the trenches.  At the same moment that Thomas yelled at them 'Lay down your arms and come out' the Boer leader put up a white flag.  The medics were astonished as 250 dishevelled Boer soldiers surfaced to surrender to the Medical Corps’ armed guard by throwing their Mausers onto a heap, before the stretcher bearers could begin to carry out the wounded and ill.  The field hospital surgeons operated late into the night.  For services at Paardeberg Thomas was Mentioned in Despatches by Field Marshal Roberts and was appointed Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).  For service in the Boer War he was awarded the Queen’s Africa Medal with 5 clasps and the VD Medal, Volunteer  Officers’ Decoration, for long and meritorious service in the military force of the British Colonies.  Thomas and Carlo, along with the NSW Lancers, embarked for Australia from Cape Town on the 11th November 1900 on SS Harlech Castle and arrived in Sydney on the 6th December 1900.  Their casualties were 2 killed and 2 died from disease.  After Thomas returned to Sydney he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the newly-formed Australian Military Forces (AMC).

In 1902 Thomas became honorary surgeon to the Governor-General and later became consulting honorary surgeon to the Sydney Hospital, and examiner in clerical surgery to the University of Sydney.  In 1909 he was appointed chairman of the board of medical studies at Sydney Hospital.  He was promoted to Colonel in 1911 and appointed Principal Medical Officer (PMO) of the Second Military District of the Commonwealth.

His son Carlo became a doctor and had a medical practice at Lithgow for some years.  He died in 1910 and Kate died in August 1913.  A year later, aged 61, Thomas married 28 year old nurse Amy Curtis at the Anglican Christ Church in Bundaberg QLD on 19th August 1914.  Amy began working for Thomas as his nurse/receptionist in 1912 when Kate’s health began to decline. 

With the outbreak of WW1 and the subsequent landings at Gallipoli, Thomas asked the British War Office to set up a military hospital on the Greek island of Lemnos to treat the wounded from Gallipoli.  In response to his request, the No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH) was formed with Thomas as its first Commander.  On 15th May 1915 the unit left Sydney for England on RMS Mooltan, one month after Thomas had requested its formation.  On board with Thomas was his new wife Amy.  She enlisted as a Sister with the AANS on the 26th April 1915 but under her maiden name.  This was against the rules as married nurses were not permitted to serve.  She was posted to 3AGH to serve with Thomas but during the voyage it was discovered that she was pregnant so she was put off at Alexandria Egypt with another nurse to care for her.  The nursing unit, under the leadership of Matron Grace Wilson, arrived in Plymouth, England, on the 27th June 1915.  On 1st July 3AGH was ordered to proceed to Lemnos Island instead of the expected destination of France.  Thomas and most of the men embarked from Devonport on the transport HMS Simla on the 12th July.  They arrived at Lemnos on 28th July to find that their supply ship, HMS Ascot, which had left England before them, had not arrived.  Amy embarked from England with the nurses of 3AGH on the 18th July.  During the voyage it was discovered that she was pregnant so when the ship arrived at Alexandria Egypt on the 1st August she was put ashore along with Sister Anne Donnell as her midwife.  The supply didn’t arrive till 20th August which was almost 2 weeks AFTER the nurses arrived on Lemnos.  Thus, 3AGH took their first patients from Gallipoli on 8th August with very limited medical equipment and supplies. 

Amy gave birth to their first daughter Eliza in September 1915 in Egypt and resigned from the nursing service a month later.  She and the baby travelled to Italy and stayed with Thomas’ sister. 

While at Lemnos Thomas worked hard until his health gave way.  Suffering from peripheral neuritis, inflammation of the nerves of the brain and spinal cord causing weakness, numbness and pain, he was evacuated to England in early November 1915 on the hospital ship Mauretania to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth where he convalesced for 3 months.  He also contracted beriberi, a serious disease contracted by lack of Vitamin B, probably as a result of the poor quality rations on Lemnos.  Amy left Eliza with Thomas’ sister and joined Thomas in England where a second daughter, unnamed, was born and died in 1916.  After a holiday Thomas reported fit for duty but was not content to accept a position in a military hospital in England so he asked to be allowed to return to Australia.  This was granted.  He and Amy travelled to Florence first to visit family and arrived there just after the great Austrian advance in the Trentino.  Thomas heard that the Italians urgently needed surgeons so he resigned from the AIF and joined the Italian Army being appointed to the Red Cross as General in charge of the surgical department of the hospital at Schio, near the Trentino frontier...12 klms from the trenches.  He served there for 12 months with Amy also serving with the Red Cross and Eliza remaining with her Aunt.  The family returned to Australia in 1917 on the SS Garonne and during the journey Amy gave birth to a third daughter, Giulia at Auckland NZ.  Sadly, after their arrival in Australia, she died on 13th November aged 3 weeks old.  A fourth daughter, Olivia, was born in Sydney in 1919. 

Piero, Thomas’ second son, also served in WW1 as a surgeon at Gallipoli and France.  He was Mentioned in Despatches and appointed the Order of the British Empire (OBE). 

In June 1920 the Prince of Wales, the future King, visited Sackville and upon his arrival, was formally welcomed by Thomas and his son Piero.  In 1926 Thomas retired from military service as an honorary Brigadier General.  That same year he bought the vineyard ‘Augustine’ in Mudgee NSW. Also in that same year the citizens of Sydney presented him with a portrait of himself for his 73rd birthday, also recognising his 50 years of service as a surgeon.  During that time he was one of the foundation members of the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association and for many years he was president of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association. 

He was also a member of the Australian Wine Producers' Association of NSW and for many years and up to the time of his death he was president of the NSW Association.  He was a member of the council of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW and an old member of the Royal Society of NSW.  For seven years he was surgeon to the Windsor Hospital and where he did pioneer work in listerian surgery.  He was honorary surgeon at the Sydney Hospital for 20 years. 

In late March 1927 Thomas contracted bronchitis while at his vineyard at Mudgee which then developed into broncho-pneumonia.  He was ill for about 3½ weeks before passing away, aged 73 years, on 17th April 1927 at his son Piero’s home at Darling Point NSW.  His funeral was held at St James Church Sydney on the 19th April and he was buried in Waverley Cemetery where his first wife Kate and their children were also buried.

In 1927 the Dante Alighieri Society of Sydney, a prestigious Italian cultural society, of which Thomas was a member, named their library after him.

Amy passed away 17th January 1964 at North Sydney NSW aged 77.  She was survived by her 2 daughters Eliza and Olivia.

In early January 1940 a memorial to Thomas was unveiled in Waverley Cemetery on the same monument alongside Kate’s memorial.  A separate memorial to their son Carlo stands right beside it.  Thomas’ name also appears on the Wilberforce Park War Memorial and the Sydney Hospital Roll of Honour.  The Hawkesbury Hospital has honoured his memory and contribution to medicine by naming the ‘Thomas Fiaschi Day Surgery Unit after him.

Thomas and son Piero are commemorated by a life-sized bronze replica of the famous Florentine Porcellino monument which is located outside Sydney Hospital where both had been honorary surgeons.  It was donated in 1968 by the Marchesa Torrigiani, Thomas' eldest daughter and Piero’s sister.              

Thomas Henry Fiaschi DSO VD MD ChD was awarded for service in WW1 the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. 

Respectfully submitted by Sue Smith 20th November 2021.

Sources

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fiaschi-6

https://www.bwm.org.au/soldiers/Thomas_Fiaschi.php

https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/fiaschi-thomas-henry-6165

http://www.cawb.com.au/was-there-a-dr-in-the-square-dr-fiaschi.html

https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/military-organisation/australian-imperial-force/australian-army-nursing-service