Charles Purcell TONKS

Charles Purcell TONKS Update Details

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TONKS, Charles Purcell

Service Number:	2921
Enlisted:	30 May 1916
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	54th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Waratah, New South Wales, Australia, 10 November 1885
Home Town:	Waratah West, Newcastle, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Butcher
Died:	Illness - tuberculosis - (war related?), Waratah, New South Wales, Australia, 1923
Cemetery:	Sandgate General Cemetery, Newcastle, NSW ANGLICAN 1-39. 74.
Memorials:

World War 1 Service

30 Sep 1915:	Involvement Private, 2921, 4th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Argyllshire embarkation_ship_number: A8 public_note: ''
30 Sep 1915:	Embarked Private, 2921, 4th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Argyllshire, Sydney
16 Feb 1916:	Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 56th Infantry Battalion
30 May 1916:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2921, 4th Infantry Battalion
29 Sep 1918:	Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 2921, 54th Infantry Battalion, Breaching the Hindenburg Line - Cambrai / St Quentin Canal, GSW right leg
12 Dec 1919:	Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 2921, 54th Infantry Battalion, 2nd MD

Help us honour Charles Purcell Tonks's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Evan Evans

From Gary Mitchell, Sandgate Cemetery

Served and suffered during The Great War, resting at Sandgate Cemetery.

97 years ago today, on the Tuesday afternoon of the 18th December 1923, Private Charles Purcell Tonks, Australian Army Ordnance Corps (Reg No-2921), butcher from Empire Hotel, Pitt Street, Sydney, New South Wales and Turton Road, Waratah, N.S.W., was laid to rest at Sandgate Cemetery, age 38. ANGLICAN 1-39. 74.

Funeral notice states gassed on two occasions, cause of death to be tuberculosis.
Born at Waratah, New South Wales on the 10th November 1885 to Benjamin and Sarah Tonks of Asher Street, Waratah, New South Wales and Lambton Road, Waratah, N.S.W., Charles enlisted June 1915 with the 4th Battalion at Liverpool, N.S.W.

Admitted to hospital 10.4.1917 (influenza, trench fever), 26.4.1917 (pleurisy), and wounded in action - 29.9.1918 (GSW right leg). Charles returned home October 1919, being discharged on the 12th December 1919.

Mr Tonk’s name has been inscribed on the Waratah-St Philip's Anglican Church Roll of Honour (unveiled on the 8th April 1917, 96 names now inscribed), Miners' Refuge Lodge No-1376 G.U.O.O.F. Roll of Honour and The Capt. Clarence Smith Jeffries (V.C.) and Pte. William Matthew Currey (V.C.) Memorial Wall. Name possibly inscribed on the Newcastle & Northern District Branch Meat Workers' Union Honour Roll.

I have placed poppies at the gravesite to honour Charles’s service and sacrifice for God, King and Country.

I will be submitting an application to DVA asking for a Commonwealth War Graves Plaque to be placed at the New South Wales Garden of Remembrance, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney.
Lest We Forget.

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