Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Isaacs #12/398 Auckland Infantry Regiment N.Z.E.F

Thomas Isaacs records indicate that he was born in Brisbane on 3rd April 1891. He enrolled at Coorparoo State School in 1898. By the time of his enlistment into the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he and his family had moved to Thames at the base of the Coramandel Peninsula near Auckland where his father Lewis was employed in the grocery firm of Coakley and Co. Thomas gave his occupation as farmer and he was 23 years old.

Thomas enlisted in Auckland on 6th September 1914, soon after recruiting in New Zealand began and was drafted into the Auckland Infantry Regiment. The New Zealand contingent embarked on 13th October and assembled with the Australian convoy at Albany, Western Australia prior to sailing for Egypt.

Thomas landed with the ANZAC Corps at Gallipoli on 25th April. On 12th May, he reported to a Field Ambulance Station with a sprained ankle, but remained on the peninsula. The beginning of August heralded the beginning of a campaign to attempt a breakout at ANZAC. Diversionary assaults were launched at Lone Pine and the Nek by the Australians to cover the landing at Suvla Bay of Stopford’s Corps. The main objective was the summit of Chunuk Bair and the New Zealanders attacked up Rhododendron Ridge towards the heights. It was probably during this action on 8th August that Thomas received a gunshot wound to the head (listed as slight) which nevertheless resulted in his evacuation to Lemnos for 10 days before going back to ANZAC.

After the failure of the August offensives, Gallipoli turned into a stalemate with both sides content to sit and wait. Once the winter approached, it was realised that the whole British position was untenable and the withdrawals were complete before Christmas of 1915.

Back in Cairo, Thomas was admitted to hospital on 30th January 1916. The initial diagnosis was venereal disease, which is understandable given the high rates of infection amongst the troops in Egypt. Thomas was transferred to the detention hospital at Abbassia on 24th February but by 1st March he had been transferred to the Government Infectious Diseases Hospital. The diagnosis now was small pox.
Four days later Thomas was listed as dangerously ill. He died of small pox on 18th March 1916 and was buried at the Cairo British War Cemetery. His father, still living in Thames received Thomas’ war medals in the 1920’s.

The reason for Thomas’ inclusion on the Coorparoo Memorial is unclear but it might be reasonable to suppose that there were still family members living in the district when the memorial was commissioned at Langlands Park.