Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#2052 KING Thomas James                                       11th Field Artillery
 
Tom King was born in Cunnamulla to James and Hannah King around 1897. By the time Tom was old enough for school, the family had moved to the Crows Nest district. Tom probably left school around his 14th birthday, as many rural kids did. From then on, he worked as a labourer on farms in the district. His father stated in the Roll of Honour Circular that Tom was a teamster which may indicate that he was involved in the timber industry snigging logs to one of the saw mills in the area. Tom also informed the recruiting officer at his enlistment that he had served for 12 months in the 3rd Darling Downs Troop of the Australian Light Horse.
 
Tom attended the Darling Downs Recruiting Depot in Toowoomba on 27th September 1915. He stated his age as 18 years and 5 months, and occupation as labourer. Tom presented as a fit young man standing 5’10” tall and weighing 10 stone. Once accepted into the AIF, Tom made his way to Brisbane by train and then on to Enoggera Camp where he passed the riding test and was allocated to the 14th Reinforcements of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment. After a period of training, the reinforcements made their way to Pinkenba Wharf to embark on the “Wandilla” on 31st January 1916. The “Wandilla” sailed via the southern Australian states taking on more reinforcements in the process. After a month at sea, the reinforcements disembarked at Suez. On 7th March, Tom and the other members of the 14th reinforcements reported to the Light Horse Depot at Cairo. Tom was transferred to the Artillery Details Unit. Up until this time, the Light Horse, Artillery and Infantry had been operating as one unit under one command. With the abandonment of the Gallipoli Campaign, it was decided to split the AIF with the Light Horse remaining in Egypt and the expanded artillery and Infantry divisions being deployed to the Western Front. On 28th May, Driver Tom King boarded a ship at Alexandria for a voyage that would take the Artillery reinforcements to England. Upon arrival at Plymouth, the men boarded a train for Salisbury Plain where the five Australian Divisions had training camps. At Bulford Camp, Tom was placed in the 4th Division Artillery Details. In September 1916, Tom crossed over to France where he was eventually assigned to the 4th Divisional Ammunition Column.
 
Ammunition Columns had the task of delivering ammunition, spares, rations and tools from the rail head dumps to the four artillery brigades within their respective divisions. To achieve this task, the column was provided with general service wagons drawn by a team of four or six heavy horses or mules under the control of a driver. The ammunition column also acted as a pool of reinforcements for the batteries. Each field artillery brigade was made up of three batteries of 18 pounder field guns and one howitzer battery. A battery contained six guns. The Australian gunners were almost constantly in action or on stand by as it was they who had the task or repelling an enemy assault or supporting their own troops. Each gun had a team of up to eight men, some of whom operated the gun in action while the others withdrew to the wagon lines where they attended to their own horses (six horses to each gun team) as well as effecting repairs to harness and equipment.
 
On 3rd November 1916, Tom was reassigned as a gunner to the 43rd battery, an 18 pounder battery, of the 11th Field Artillery Brigade. During the winter of 1916/17, the Western Front was virtually closed down. Positions that had been held up until the first snows were consolidated. The ground became frozen and many infantrymen succumbed to trench feet or bronchial complaints
 
On the Somme, taking advantage of the lull in fighting during the winter, the Germans had constructed a 150 kilometre long defensive barrier, which they named the Seigfreid Position but the British labelled the Hindenburg Line, some distance to the east of their previous positions astride the Somme. As the German forces began a strategic withdrawal to this new position, the British forces cautiously followed, taking the towns of Bapaume and Noreuil along the way. By the first week in April, elements of the 5th British Army under General Gough, which included two Australian divisions, came up against the Hindenburg defences at Bullecourt.
 
The 4th Divisional Artillery had been attached to the British forces of the 5th Army in the Spring of 1917 and the gunners followed their infantry as the whole force moved east. On 15th April, the 11th FAB was in position on the Bapaume Bullecourt Road to support an infantry assault. The Australians were supposed to have been covered on their left flank by a British unit but this had not occurred causing the 11th FAB Commander to order the 43rd Battery to break cover and wheel to the left (all achieved by man power alone) to cover the rest of the brigade. The then exposed gun battery drew heavy enemy artillery fire. It was reported that a shell from a German howitzer landed right among an 18 pounder gun crew of the 43rd Battery, destroying the gun and 3 000 rounds of ammunition as well as killing 14 men. Amongst the dead was Gunner Thomas King aged 20. A witness stated that Tom’s head was almost severed from his body. The 12 ordinary ranks killed were buried beside the road. The two officers killed were taken to a proper cemetery. A large wooden cross was erected at the burial site and photographs were taken to provide to the fallen men’s relatives.
 
Tom’s personal effects; penknife, metal pencil case, a lock of hair, two wallets and a shell splinter were parcelled up and sent to James King at Crows Nest. James King was granted a pension of £2 per fortnight. At the end of the war, the Imperial War Graves Commission set about consolidating the isolated graves that littered the battlefields of France and Belgium. The remains of the 12 artillery men buried on the Bullecourt Road were exhumed and reinterred in the HAC British Cemetery. James King chose the following inscription for his son’s headstone: WHOSOEVER SHALL LOSE HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE, THE SAME SHALL SAVE IT.