Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Before he enlisted McGregor was an employee of Messrs. McWhirters Ltd., in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. He enlisted as soon as war broke out, and left as Corporal with the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade with the first contingent to sail from Queensland's shores. After spending some time in Egypt, he went with the Australians to the Dardanelles, going through the whole of the Gallipoli campaign before he transferred to the 3rd Field Ambulance just prior to the evacuation.

He transferred to the 13th Field Ambulance Brigade a few months later, and was awarded a Military Medal for gallant conduct at Mouquet Farm over a period of three or four days from 31 August 1916.

He later wrote a letter to his mother which was printed in the Brisbane Daily Mail during January 1917, “Dear Mother, you may already know, but whether or not, you will be pleased to learn that I have been awarded the Military Medal for recent work. Have received the colours, which I am wearing, and the medal will be available after the war, so remember it in case anything happens. Just to let you know how I received the medal I will give you the following description: — We left our own advanced station at 4.00 a.m. (dark), and would reach a half-way dressing station at 5.30 a.m.: from there we had to journey over open country with white flag as protection to the front trench. Just before we reached the half-way station our bombardment started on Fritz: the din was terrific; one could not hear one's own voice speaking. The enemy laid low except for sending up star shells to see if our infantry ‘were out’, and about half an hour from our guns starting they opened, just before we reached the half-way house. I was in sole charge of mv bearers (35), and ordered the double to the dressing station: there we were half-way, with the worst journey to face (open country). Well, we took shelter for half an hour (daylight), and then resumed our journey. My men faced it bravely, and out we went in a long line, with our stretchers and white flags. The order was to take a certain trench a long way, but usually the safer. We found it, on reaching, to be under heavy shell fire, and it would be the end of us all to take it, so the only option was to go straight over the open and risk anything falling short, and trust to our flags for the rest. We had not gotten 100 yards before a machine gun played upon us, and in spite of our running forward for temporary cover one of my lads got a bullet between the eyes (killed), and another got one in the foot. Further on one shell just landed behind myself and just in front of another chap, near enough to make each other think the other was ‘down and out’, but luck was with us both. Well, to make a long story short, we eventually reached our objective just a few yards from our front-line trench and there we found an accumulation of wounded, enough to keep our party going all day. The rest was simply a procession to and fro of stretcher carriers after the wounds were attended to.”

Thomas McGregor was returned to Australia in late 1918 on special 1914 leave. He married almost immediately and raised two children. He passed away in 1965 at the age of 78.