Thomas Christopher IRVINE

IRVINE, Thomas Christopher

Service Number: 5129
Enlisted: Not yet discovered
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 1st Infantry Battalion
Born: 1893, place not yet discovered
Home Town: Kangaroo Valley, Shoalhaven Shire, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Not yet discovered
Died: Killed in Action, Pozieres France, 22 July 1916
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Berry Honour Roll, Berry War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France)
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World War 1 Service

1 Apr 1916: Involvement Private, 5129, 1st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: SS Makarini embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: ''
1 Apr 1916: Embarked Private, 5129, 1st Infantry Battalion, SS Makarini, Sydney

A South Coast Waratah Volunteer

Thomas Christopher Irvine was known to family and friends as Chris. A son of John Alfred and (late) Sarah Irvine (nee Taylor) he was the third child in a family of eleven.
Born in Kangaroo Valley on 22 September 1893 he was 22 years of age when he joined the Waratah Recruitment March at Nowra on 30 November 1915. William Cramond and Thomas Scott were also present from the Valley.
Like so many before they were warmly farewelled by the community at a social a week before their departure. Kit bags and wallets were distributed to the men, with Glen Lumsden also farewelled. Irvine would be assigned to the 1st Battalion AIF
as was the case for most of the Waratah volunteers. Following home leave they entered the Liverpool Camp on 17 December.
Irvine embarked from Sydney on the SS Makarini on 1 April 1916 and disembarked briefly at Alexandria Egypt on 5 May, before shipping out again a week later for Marseilles France. Arriving in France a week later they were entrained to Etaples on the west coast of France by 20 May. Here they learnt the realities of trench warfare, somewhat different and more serious than their training in Australia and Egypt.
On 12 July Irvine joined the battalion in the field at Vignacourt where they spent the week training and taking forced marches east through Allonville, and Contalmaison. Something big was building. The flash and thunderous boom of heavy artillery drew their attention to the east where the Battle of Pozieres lay ahead.
At 11pm on 22 July the 1st assembled on the firing line. Each man had been issued 250 rounds of ammunition, and pink patches of fabric were sewn to the back of their tunics for recognition in the terror and confusion of battle.
Chris hopped the bags at 12.30am behind a barrage of artillery to protect the infantry. Now in C Company, he followed the first wave of A and B Company men. They were quickly in the enemy trenches, their next task now to consolidate. But the Germans were always reluctant to give ground and so began the most intensive artillery bombardment of the war for the next three days. The Australian attack had created a salient (bulge) in the line and so the enemy could fire on the Australians from three sides. The noise was so intense it was clearly heard in the southern counties of England. Fred Wright, a fellow Valley man, wrote home that it was:
" … like being in hell for three days."
Three of the Valley contingent fell at Pozieres, including Chris Irvine. Two were wounded. Fred Wright wrote home to his sister Amy from hospital on 30 September saying:
"... I heard Tom Brooks got killed. So did C. Irvine, got killed got blown to pieces so Bill Cramond was telling me."
There are no definitive accounts of Irvine's death but it would appear he was killed by shellfire some time between 23-25 July. This was the fate of so many in those three days under the German bombardment.
Alf Irvine was informed by telegram on 18 August of his son's death in action. However the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and local papers listed Chris as seriously wounded, causing distress and uncertainty until the reply to their letters confirmed he had been killed. His mother Sarah had passed in 1908 and so was spared the loss of her beloved son.
Chris would appear to have left a grieving sweetheart at home. 22 year-old Rebecca Jorgenson from Berry wrote several times asking for details of Chris' passing and the return of his personal effects. By February 1918 all that was returned to family was his identity disc.
His father Alf would receive Chris' Memorial Plaque in 1921 and war medals in 1923.
Chris Irvine was buried in the vicinity of Pozieres, but the site of his grave was lost.
His name accordingly appears on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France.
It also appears in multiple locations at home - the Kangaroo Valley War Memorial, the Berry War Memorial and the Berry School of Arts Memorial Plaque.

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