Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Mention in despatches Awarded, and gazetted, 'London Gazette', second Supplement, No. 30448 (28 December 1917); 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 57 (18 April 1918).

CAPTAIN / MAJOR THOMAS CHARLES WILSON, MID.


Thomas Charles Wilson was born in Gibraltar on the 30th August 1877. He was educated at St Stephen’s (Westminster) School, London, and in Yorkshire.

In 1891, at the age of fourteen, he entered the Civil Service of Great Britain with the Postmaster-General’s Department until in 1896, was one of many who were transferred by the Imperial Government to the Colony of Western Australia. This was at the request of the Western Australian Colonial Government, who were faced with the problem of handling the huge increase in telegraph and postal traffic that had been created by the rich gold discoveries in Coolgardie.

In September 1896, he landed at Albany and was immediately attached to the Postmaster-General’s staff at head office in Perth as a telegraphist. In 1900 he was transferred to Kanowna in the Goldfields, returning to Perth in 1905.

His military career commenced in Britain where he served in the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps at Leeds for two years. After his initial arrival in Perth, he joined the Volunteers of the 1st Infantry Regiment (Perth) and after passing the examinations was soon promoted to Sergeant in “A” Company. On his moving to Kanowna, he was attached to the newly formed 5th Battalion of the Western Australian Infantry Brigade, Kanowna Company (Goldfields) and was promoted to the rank of Colour Sergeant.

Colour Sergeant Wilson was gazetted as
• Second Lieutenant on 7th June 1901
• Lieutenant on 1st January 1903 (CG 13 of 27th March 1903, Western Australian Infantry Brigade, 5th Battalion, 2LT Thomas Charles Wilson to be LT. Dated 1st January 1903).
• On 20th December 1904 he was promoted to Captain of the Company at Kanowna (CG 10 of 18th February 1905, Western Australia, The Goldfields Infantry Regiment of Western Australia, LT Thomas Charles Wilson to be Captain. Dated 20th December 1904).
• On his return to Perth in 1905 he was placed on the unattached list (CG 41 of 12th August 1905. Western Australia. Transfer. Unattached List. The Goldfields Infantry Regiment of Western Australia, Captain Thomas Charles Wilson to be Captain. Dated 21st July 1905).

The Commonwealth of Australia Government Gazette of 23rd December 1905 formally announced that the Australian Corps of Signallers was to be formed as a voluntary part-time Corps with an establishment of 284 all ranks and having Companies or Sections in all States. Soldiers were to be called “Privates”, not “Sappers”.

Military Order Number 82 issued on 12th January 1906 authorised the raising and designation of the Corps. In late 1905, at the request of the District Commandant, Colonel P. R. Ricardo, Captain Wilson was transferred from the Unattached List and became one of the first two Officers to be appointed to the Australian Corps of Signallers. The task required of him by Colonel Ricardo was to form the Number 8 (Half) Company of the Australian Corps of Signallers. This was accomplished by 1st March 1906, with Sections at Perth and Fremantle comprising 20 personnel capable of manning five stations. The Perth section paraded at Swan Barracks, Francis Street, Perth, however I have not been able to determine where, if indeed the Company did, parade in Fremantle. They would in all probability have been co-located with another or other Units, with the possibilities being: -
• The Drill Hall in Queen Street, which was occupied by the Army from 1901
• The Artillery Barracks in Burt Street Fremantle which was occupied by the Army from 1908
• Fort Arthur Fremantle which was occupied by the Army from 1879
However none of these location’s records show that the A C of S occupied them.

Captain Wilson continued to command this Company and in 1910, Lord Kitchener visited the camp (known generally as “the Kitchener Camp”) held at Tammin where the Company received the highest praise for the soldierly manner in which it had carried out the work allotted to it during the manoeuvres.
As already stated, for reasons best known to himself, Lord Kitchener ordered that at the end of the exercise the troops march back to Northam from Tammin – a distance of some 60 miles (96 kilometers) in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). Not all Unit Commanders complied with this surprising order.

The praise given to the Corps was to prove of no avail, because one of Lord Kitchener’s recommendations in his report to the Australian Government was that the responsibility for communications be returned to the Engineers. Perhaps this was predictable, since it had already been decided that the British Army Signal Service, the model for the Australian Corps of Signallers, would be eliminated and its duties passed to the Royal Engineers.

As a result of Lord Kitchener’s report, the entire Australian military structure was reorganised and the Australian Corps of Signallers was disbanded on 1st July 1912 with new Engineer Units listed as part of the Militia.

At this time, Captain Wilson was still in command of Number 8 (Half) Company and with 17 other officers from the Australian Corps of Signallers he transferred to the Engineers - in his case, to 5th Military District Signal Engineers.
While this ended Captain Wilson’s involvement with the now defunct Australian Corps of Signallers, he continued to serve in the Engineer Signals.

Prior to the disbandment of the Australian Corps of Signallers, the Corps of Australian Engineers in Western Australia comprised Number 4 Field Company and Number 4 Electric Company and the Australian Corps of Signallers Number 8 (Half) Company. Following the disbandment of the Australian Corps of Signallers, the Engineers comprised 30th Engineers (Signal Company) and 35th Engineers (Electric Company).

With the advent of World War I he was quick to join the First Australian Imperial Force and commanded the Western Australian contingent of 1st Division Signal Company that departed Fremantle on board the “Dimboola” on 26th August 1914.
At 38 years of age, he was a fairly solidly built man standing 5 feet 10 inches (177.8 cm) in height, weighing 13 stone 7 pounds (85.7 kg) with a chest measurement of 40 inches (101.6 cm).

When he arrived in Melbourne, his undoubted skills as a telegraphist kept him from the 1st Division Signal Company, which went on to serve at Gallipoli, Egypt and France, while Major Wilson was posted as Chief Instructor of a Signals School at Broadmeadows in Victoria.

The wheels seemed to grind slowly and there is no record in his service documents from the National Archives of Australia until 3rd September 1915 when he applied for a Commission, however in the “Officers’ List of the Australian Military Forces 1st September 1915”, under the heading of “Officers of the Imperial Army and of the Citizens’ Forces seconded temporarily for duty with the Permanent Forces” he is listed as a Major, Headquarters, Regimental Lists 5th Military District, date of temporary employment 16th September 1914. In the same publication it is stated that he was promoted to Major on 1st July 1914 and seconded whilst on temporary employment on the Administrative and Instructional Staff.

On 17th January 1916 he was appointed Major and CO 3rd Division Signal Company in 3rd Military District. At this time, his wife Susannah Honner Wilson was with him and they lived in Saint Kilda.

Major Wilson and the 3rd Division Signal Company sailed from Melbourne on the troop ship HMAT A 11 “Ascanius” on 27th May 1916 and arrived at Plymouth on 18th July 1916. After final training they were sent from Southampton to France on 26th November 1916 and deployed in the line at Armentieres.

On 27th January 1917 Major Wilson was appointed to command a Royal Engineers school in France until returning to command of his Company on 9th February 1917.

From 31st July 1917 to 31st August 1917 he was on leave in France. On 29th October 1917 he was seconded for duty as CO of the Australian Signals Depot in Sheffield England.

On 7th November 1917 Major Wilson was specifically mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatch (MID), which was published in the supplement to the “London Gazette” of Friday 28th December 1917, then promulgated in “Commonwealth of Australia Gazette” Number 57 dated 18th April 1918. The MID form was forwarded to Mrs. Wilson on 9th May 1918.

Major Wilson was awarded the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal by Military Order Number 235 of 1st June 1918.

On 15th September 1918 he left Southampton for France and marched in to the Australian General Base Depot in Havre, on 19th September 1918 he was seconded for duty at the Australian Corps Signals School as Chief Instructor and OC.

Major Wilson left France and disembarked at Folkestone on 21st December 1918, having ceased his secondment to the Australian Corps Signals School then he went on leave in the UK before reporting to Horseferry Road for duty. He embarked on 18th January 1919 aboard HT (Hired Transport) “Ulysses” as second in command of troops, disembarking in Melbourne on 10th March 1919.

Having now completed his duties for World War I, he was gazetted from the Australian Imperial Force and his appointment terminated in 3rd Military District on 17th April 1919. Then followed the award of: -
• Mentioned in Despatches Certificate on 2nd June 1920 when his address was Caversham in Western Australia
• Oak leaves (2) for Mention in Despatches on 14th September 1920
• Victory Medal – date illegible, but the form was printed in 1920
• British War Medal on 18th July 1921

On his return to Western Australia, he continued to serve and the Army List of 1st April 1920 shows him commanding 7th Signal Company.

Major Wilson, MID, retired from the Australian Engineers on 30th March 1921 with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel, capping off a military career that commenced in the UK in 1894, and extending over some 27 years, most of which (except for war service) was in Western Australia in the 1st Infantry Regiment; 5th Battalion Western Australian Infantry Brigade; Australian Corps of Signallers and the Corps of Australian Engineers. As a matter of interest, the Permanent forces of the Engineers were granted the title “Royal” on 4th October 1907 by Military Order Number 284, but the Militia Engineers did not receive this honour until well after Major Wilson had retired.

For his service, Major Wilson, MID, was awarded: -
• Mention in Despatches
• The British War Medal
• The Victory Medal
• The Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal
• The honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel

Major Wilson was married to Susannah Honora (nee Neilson of Sunvale Dunach, Talbot, Victoria) and they had eight children. A Department of Repatriation “General Registration” form dated 1st February 1919 lists the children and their ages but not their dates of birth so I have mathematically estimated the years of their births in the following list: -
• Henrietta Roma, born 29th July 1902 at Kanowna
• Edward Lionel Hans, born 9th January 1904 at Kanowna
• Rose Neilson, born 26th October 1905 at John Street, Cottesloe
• Harold Charles Talbot, born 14th May 1908 at “Roseville” John Street,
• Cottesloe
• Lewese Ellen, born 1910
• Doreen Ivy, born 13th August 1912 at Lot 1880 West Swan Road,
• Caversham
• Constance Frederica, born 13th February 1914
• Trevor Charles, born 12th June 1916 in Victoria

Mrs. Wilson passed away on 16th July 1954 after many years of service to the Country Women’s Association and the (now) Returned and Services League for whom she founded the Women’s Auxiliary.

Thomas Charles Wilson returned to England in 1955 and married Nelly Briggs. He passed away on 14th August 1961 and was buried in Scarborough, England.