Thomas Fraser BRUCE

Thomas Fraser BRUCE Update Details

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BRUCE, Thomas Fraser

Service Number:	1069
Enlisted:	3 March 1916, Sydney, New South Wales
Last Rank:	Second Lieutenant
Last Unit:	36th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Braidwood, New South Wales, 19 April 1885
Home Town:	Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Tram conductor
Died:	Killed In Action, Passchendaele, Belgium, 12 October 1917, aged 32 years
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient)

World War 1 Service

3 Mar 1916:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1069, Sydney, New South Wales
13 May 1916:	Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1069, 36th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '17' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Beltana embarkation_ship_number: A72 public_note: ''
13 May 1916:	Embarked Private, 1069, 36th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Beltana, Sydney
28 Aug 1916:	Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 36th Infantry Battalion
13 Feb 1917:	Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 36th Infantry Battalion
12 Jun 1917:	Wounded Sergeant, 1069, 36th Infantry Battalion, Battle of Messines, GSW (back)
30 Aug 1917:	Promoted AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, 36th Infantry Battalion
12 Oct 1917:	Involvement AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, 36th Infantry Battalion, 1st Passchendaele, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: awm_unit: 36th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Second Lieutenant awm_died_date: 1917-10-12

Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board

Thomas Fraser BRUCE had been born in Braidwood in 1885. In the years 1909-1912 he had played in nineteen first-grade rugby league games for the Eastern Suburbs club in Sydney alongside the legendary Dally Messenger, but his first-grade career was over by the time he joined the Sydney tramways in March 1914 as a conductor.
He enlisted in the AIF at Broadmeadow, NSW, in March 1916, having previously served in the Home Service (including six months as camp cook at Liverpool), from which he was discharged to re-enlist for overseas service. Embarked from Sydney in May 1916, he was promoted to Corporal in England in August, sent to France in November, and promoted to Sergeant ‘in the field’ in February 1917. In June 1917 he was wounded in action in the Battle of Messines, re-joining his unit in August after hospital treatment in France. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in August, spent a week at a training school the following month, and was killed in action early on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele, 12 October 1917.
He has no known grave but is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres.
Pensions were granted by the military authorities to his widow and two adopted children.
(NAA B2455-3132762)