Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Edward Jewell Wardle was the son of Walter Sydney Wardle and Lilly Jewell. He was born in Perth in 1912.

Tom's father was born in New Zealand in 1883. Walter had migrated to W.A. where he later worked for a Rural W.A. Bank. Hence he moved around Western Australia in his various postings. Tom's mother was born in Victoria in 1886. Her family had migrated to W.A. from the Victorian Goldfields.

W.A. was booming in the 1890's due to the discovery of huge gold deposits first at Coolgardie, then later at Kalgoorlie.

Tom's parents were married in Western Australia in 1911. The family lived in various country towns.

Hence, Tom's schooling was interrupted as he had to keep changing schools. His mother died in 1927 when Tom was 12 years old. However, he finished his schooling.

Tom met and married Swedish born Hulda May Olsen in 1940. However he was then mobilized for militia in Jan 1941. It was just after the birth of his first child. 

Tom trained as a Sapper but sort a discharge to join the RAAF. His discharge was approved in July 1941 but not his RAAF application. Hence, he was remobilized on 14 August 1941.  

He was sent to the Western Command's Ordnance Workshop. Tom applied himself. He was eventually appointed to Camp Karrakatta's Training staff. Tom reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. 

The war was coming closer to his young family. Hence he decided to go overseas to face the enemy. Tom was enlisted as a 2nd A.I.F. Sergeant on 04 August 1942.

He was deployed to New Guinea on 18 Dec 1943. He served in the 51st Mobile Search Light Battery RAA.

Tom was repatriated on 09 Sep 1944 but redeployed in 1945. He was sent to Singapore for a period of three months after the surrender. This would have been an admin role, likey associated with repatriating POW's. 

He was not discharged until 16 May 1946. For his army admin skills were still needed until mid 1946.

Tom did not apply for all his war service medals until 1996. His Army war service medal confirmation letter dated 22 July 1996 is attached letter.

Tom had wanted to put the war behind him after his 1946 discharge. To concentrate on his young family's needs. That included the issue of how to make his living on civvy street.

Tom's second child was born in late 1946.

Tom and Hulda wanted to have their own corner shop to make a living. Hence opened a corner grocery store in a rented North Perth building. They converted this building to their first shop in 1946.

They managed to grow their small business through good customer service. Then by 1952 they had enough to purchase their corner store building.

Tom and Hulda visited her native Sweden for a holiday in 1955. Tom noticed that the European supermarket model allowed customers to wander around the store with shopping trolleys.

This was novel compared to ordering and paying for items directly from a shop assistant. Hence a shop assistant then had to fetch each item as in his corner shop. 

Tom had also noticed that there was much greater competition amongst European supermarkets. This meant lower markups for increased turnover for these supermarkets to stay in business.

Hence he decided to try this model in Perth. For it was then a sleepy backwater that was not used to this novel trolley supermarket shopping experience.   

He called his new Perth Supermarket model "Tom the Cheap". This did rock established shops who saw him as a cowboy. Though that changed when this novel supermarket trolley model proved to be very popular with the local consumers.  

Tom had several hundred "Tom the Cheap" supermarkets by 1970. He was by then Perth's Lord Mayor. He had run for that elected position in 1967 to make council red tape more CBD business friendly.

He wanted to reinvigorate Perth's CBD. Hence he campaigned for that office and got himself elected as Perth's Lord Mayor.

His service as Lord Mayor plus his own philanthropic support to the Arts and Sciences was rewarded in the 1970 Queens Birthday Honours. Sir Tom Wardle was elevated to Knight Bachelor as per attached London Gazette.

[Supplement to the London Gazette, 13 June 1970 page 6366]  

His business empire took a dive in 1978 due to unwise investments outside of his core business.  

Sir Thomas Wardle and his wife retired to live on Dirk Hartog Island. Sir Tom had purchased this iconic island as a family retreat in 1968.

He had opposed the W.A. Government's decision to sell the island. It had long been used as a pastoral lease as per attached link. Sir Tom argued that Dirk Harthog Island should be a nature reserve. Hence. he used his means to buy it for that long term purpose.

This famous island, which Dirk Harthog visited on 25 October 1616 was by 1968, a sheep station, as it had no predators.

The wreck of HSK Kormoran, located about 80 nm west of Dirk Harthog Island, was found during the search for HMAS Sydney in 2008. The strategic location is significant in naval history. 

Dirk Harthog Island, known as Wirrumana by the Traditional custodians, is now part of the Shark Bay Marine Park.

Tom Wardle's contribution to that end is attached. 

Shark Bay itself is actually two bays sheltered by peninsulas and a long island. The local Malgana people know this world heritage area as Gatharraguda meaning "two waters".

Local history is cited from Shark Bay World Heritage Area i.e. The Shark Bay Marine Park.

Sir Thomas Edward Jewell Wardle eventaully passed away in 1997. 

Sir Tom achieved a lot in his 84 years, including a Knighthood plus an Hon LLD.

However, his active service in the defence of Australia is what shaped the second half of his life.

He part in that epic conflict is what enabled him to raise his family in a free nation. He did what he could with the skills and talents he had in order to give back to a democratic and free society.  

Lest We Forget. 

NAA Records linked. His MyHeritage Family History plus his Wikipedia bio is cited. London Gazette Knight Bachelor citation extract plus Hon LLD UWA award citation is attached.