URQUHART, Thomas
| Service Number: | 533 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 24th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Edinburgh, Scotland, 30 March 1898 |
| Home Town: | Box Hill, Whitehorse, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Printer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 29 July 1916, aged 18 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers Brettoneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 10 May 1915: | Involvement Private, 533, 24th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 May 1915: | Embarked Private, 533, 24th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Melbourne |
Scottish Immigrant
Thomas arrived in Melbourne from Scotland in 1912 as a 17 year old. On 17 March 1915 he enlisted in the Australian Infantry, and sailed for Egypt as a private in B Company, 24th Battalion. He went ashore with his battalion at Gallipoli on September 4th and they spent the next 16 weeks sharing duty at Lone Pine with the 23rd Battalion. The fighting at Lone Pine was so dangerous and exhausting that the battalions were rotated daily. He survived Gallipoli only to be killed in action in France on July 29 1916 at the age of 21. He is commemorated on the Villers Bretonneux Monument so has no known grave. His mother back in Scotland was awarded a pension of 10/- a week and his personal effects were just a writing pad, an air cushion, a metal ring, a scarf and a notebook.
I found more about Thomas Urquhart on the Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files 1914-18 War. He was hit by a shell in the trenches at the foot of the Poziers Ridge. He only lived a very short time and his last words were reported as something like “I’ve got a good Blighty now”. He was buried in the trench along with a great many more men and the informant believed that the graves would never be found as the trenches were soon blown quite flat.
His nickname was Ginger and he was about 5ft 8 ins tall.
Submitted 30 September 2020 by Rosemary Miles