Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

"Lieutenant Colonel Terence Patrick McSharry, CMG, DSO, MC, served with 2nd Light Horse Regiment, Australian Imperial Force, on Gallipoli until 1915 when he joined the 15th Infantry Battalion as adjunct. After Gallipoli he was appointed to command the 15th and led it in France at Pozieres, Bullecourt, Passchendaele and Hebuterne. On 6th August 1918 a severe German bombardment caught the battalion on the Somme flats near Vaire, during preparations for the great final offensive to begin two days later. Helping a wounded man to shelter in the barrage McSharry was himself mortally wounded." - SOURCE (www.awm.gov.au)

"A GALLANT LEADER. The Late Lieutenant-Colonel McSharry. (By ex-Captain.)

Widespread and acute will be the sorrow felt among Australian soldiers in the field and at home at the news of the death of Lieut.-Col. T. P. McSharry, C.M.G, D.S.O., M.C., the gallant leader of the 15th Battalion. He had been through so many conflicts at close quarters with both Turks and Huns that one had come to think that he would be spared to return to his homeland. But a Hun shell found him at last, and he has fallen on the field of honor. The Australian Army has lost one of its most fearless and capable leaders, and the rank and file will mourn an amiable and sympathetic comrade. His life and bearing in the field stamped him as one of the bravest soldiers who wore the King's khaki. Rich with the honors lavished upon him by His Majesty as a reward for his gallantry and consummate strategic skill, he has gone to his last rest with the dawn of victory flushing the battle skies of the West.

As a captain of the Light Horse, the writer first met him at Gallipoli. Captain McSharry took part with his troop, and later as a squadron leader, in many engagements with the Turks. He was marked out at an early stage of his campaigning for promotion and distinction, through his extensive knowledge of tactics and his skill as a leader. Subsequent to the evacuation, when the 4th and 5th Australian Divisions were being formed, he was selected by General Sir Herbert Cox as Major and Second-in-Command of the battalion which he afterwards led until his death. When the primitive methods of warfare at Anzac were succeeded by the highly sensitised and detailed systems that had to be employed against the Huns, the honor of leadership had associated with it great responsibilities. Chief among these was the task of training and accustoming infantry to attacks by gas, which was the newest and most devilish of the Huns' devices when the Australians took their places in the trenches in Flanders early in 1916. There was also to be perfected the training of bombers, scouts, patrols, signallers, raiders, runners, and the hundred odd activities of a battalion in the field. Major McSharry's efficiency in these administrative duties rapidly came to the notice of Sir Douglas Haig, whose decision to entrust him with the command of the battalion was thoroughly endorsed throughout the division.

Colonel McSharry, as he now was, set himself early to wear down some of the adverse criticism that was directed at Australians by British units. This criticism, which was given in a spirit of friendly rivalry, suggested that, while the fearlessness and fighting qualities of Australian soldiers were never in doubt, their discipline was lax. Men who were in France with the A.I.F. in these days will remember that these suggestions, though well-intentioned, rankled, and all ranks were determined to profit by them. Colonel McSharry, who had ever the happy knack of taking his men into his confidence, tackled the problem of discipline steadily and consistently, and no great time elapsed before his battalion was constantly quoted by the divisional commander as an example of soldierly deportment out of the line. Colonel McSharry's battalion earned its first laurels on the West front by its capture of the positions in the vicinity of the windmill at Pozieres. They were again in action at Mouquet Farm, where they bore a generous share in the fighting that opened the way for the Canadians to capture the fortress of Thiepval. The fighting in this sector was accompanied by the most vicious and sustained bombardment that the Australians experienced before or since, until the German offensive in March last. The Huns directed fire from every gun of every calibre that could concentrate on Mouquet Farm. The bombardment lasted incessantly throughout day and night for two weeks. But the British batteries, standing shoulder to shoulder in Sausage Valley, and around Orvillers, without any atempt at camouflage, replied with interest, and gradually the stronghold was made untenable, and fell into our hands.

Colonel McSharry's battalion, after a brief rest in the North, was back again on the Somme at the beginning of the awful winter of 1916, and remained in the snow-bound, slush-girt trenches until the spring. Although the cold was the severest recorded in France for 20 years, the Australians were in the line all through the winter, and, remarkable as it may seem, their casualties from what is termed "winter wastage" were lower than many regular British units. The battalion was in the operations that resulted in the capture of Le Sars, Warlencourt and Thilloy, and were snapping at the heels of the fleeing Huns in their retreat through Bapaume. Perhaps the brightest page in the story of Colonel McSharry's battalion describes the part it took at the battles in the Noreuil and Bullecourt sectors, in April, 1917. At the latter the battalion had the distinction of being one of the Australian units which were the first to pierce the Hindenburg line. Their ranks were sadly thinned after their thrust at this, the least vulnerable of all the German defensive systems, but they established the fact that the Hindenburg line could be broken, and it fell to the lot of gallant Scottish battalions to complete the penetration.

Scarcely had he completed the work of reorganising and the refitting of his unit, and the training of new corps of specialists, than Colonel McSharry was again under orders for the big offensive of Messines. General Plumer, who commanded the Second Army, entrusted the task of reducing Messines to the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions, and the New Zealand Division. The attack was carefully rehearsed for a fortnight behind the lines. Rivers and valleys were excavated in 20 acres of pasture lands, and the Messines Ridge and surrounding terrain, with its maze of German trenches, redoubts, and battery positions, were entirely reproduced in miniature. In the Messines attack General Plumer introduced, for the first time on the Western Front, the now familiar leap-frog tactics, by which one division captured one position; a second division leap-frogged over it, and took up a line further in advance, and a third division went through both the others and stormed the final objective. The attack was launched an hour before dawn on Thursday, June 7, 1918, and all objectives were captured according to time-table. Colonel McSharry's battalion fought with conspicuous gallantry and success at the operations that resulted in the capture of Passchendaele, and added fresh lustre to Australian arms during the anxious days of the great German offensive in March and April last. Colonel McSharry won every distinction that could fall on an officer of his rank, with the sole exception of the V.C. His fellow-officers will grieve at the loss of a gallant leader and confidant, and the men in the ranks will share the army's sorrow at the death of one who, in all his dealing with them, set a magnificent example of personal courage, associated with a fine sense of honor and justice. His name will linger in their memory as long as Australian feats of arms are recalled..." - from the Cairns Northern Herald 05 Sep 1918 (nla.gov.au)

Lieutenant Colonel Terence Patrick McSHarry CMG, DSO* MC MiD

From the Australian Dictionary of Biography

Terence Patrick McSharry (1880-1918), soldier, was born on 9 August 1880 at Curracuringa, Townsville, Queensland, son of Irish-born Matthew McSharry, contractor, later accountant, and his Queensland-born wife Margaret, née Pottinger. Known as 'Jockey Jim' within the family, for his love of horses, after attending Christian Brothers' St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, Brisbane, Terry was a bookkeeper in Brisbane in 1903-08, joined the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, and was a surveyor by 1912. That year, on 25 March, he was commissioned in the Australian Intelligence Corps and in February 1914 was appointed a staff officer (Queensland District).

Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force on 21 August 1914, McSharry was commissioned lieutenant in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment and embarked on 24 September. The regiment landed at Gallipoli on 12 May 1915. He was permanent post adjutant and works' officer at Quinn's Post, where during the critical Turkish break-in of 29 May, although senior officers were present, it was McSharry who, 'with his thorough knowledge of the post and eminent coolness and decision, most fully grasped and controlled the situation'. Early in the attack, rallying men with the call 'Come on, Australia!', he led a party which halted infiltrating enemy with crude 'jam-tin' bombs. He received a bullet through his 'Irish hat with the little brim', an example of the irregularities of the Anzac uniform—most of its brim was cut off. For his 'exceptional bravery and resource', especially in this action and that of 4 June, he was awarded the Military Cross. He had been promoted captain and transferred as adjutant to the 15th Battalion in June.

In Egypt McSharry was promoted major in January 1916 and in June sailed with the battalion to France. He was promoted temporary lieutenant-colonel and took command of the 15th on 30 August.

McSharry was one of the notable A.I.F. battalion commanders in France. To Charles Bean 'there was no wiser head in the force'. Except when detached to temporarily command the 4th Brigade from 13 to 25 July 1918, he led his battalion for almost two years, an exceptionally long period. He commanded it in the battles of Stormy Trench (January-February 1917), 1st Bullecourt (April), Messines (June), Polygon Wood (September) and in 1918 at Hamel. Four times mentioned in dispatches, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in June 1917 and was appointed C.M.G. in June 1918. While helping a wounded man to shelter in a bombardment at Vaire-sous-Corbie, on the Somme, McSharry was mortally wounded and died on 6 August 1918. He was buried near Corbie. He was posthumously awarded a Bar to the D.S.O.

McSharry was remembered as 'a lovable comrade … a gallant and intellectual soldier … cheery and energetic'. With hair parted in the middle, and an upturned nose, he was short, described by the battalion historian as 'of jockey weight … with a small voice with more than its share of biting sarcasm if matters did not go his way … Outspoken to a degree of bluntness that at times was most alarming, intermingled … with a caustic wit … There are hundreds of stories relating to his contempt for danger … he could tell and appreciate a good joke'. He was unmarried. A portrait by William McInnes is held by the Australian War Memorial.

Merrilyn Lincoln, 'McSharry, Terence Patrick (1880–1918)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcsharry-terence-patrick-7446/text12965, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 3 August 2018.

This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, (MUP), 1986