Tom LEEDLE

LEEDLE, Tom

Service Number: 3339
Enlisted: Not yet discovered
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 43rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 5 March 1891
Home Town: Adelaide, South Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Stove fitter
Memorials: Adelaide Gilles Street Primary School WW1 Honour Roll (New)
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World War 1 Service

7 Mar 1918: Involvement Private, 3339, 43rd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: SS Ormonde embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: ''
7 Mar 1918: Embarked Private, 3339, 43rd Infantry Battalion, SS Ormonde, Melbourne
Date unknown: Wounded 3339, 50th Infantry Battalion

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Biography contributed by Saint Ignatius' College

Tom Leedle was born on the 5th of March 1891 in Adelaide, South Australia. His occupation before he went to war was a stove maker. He was single when he went off to war and had never been married so he didn’t have any children. He was a Methodist. He lived at 20 Edward Street in Norwood. When he left to fight in the war he was 26 years and 8 months old. He had already served in the military before the war for 1 month. He signed up to go to war on the 12th of November 1917. 

Physical appearance:

Tom Leedle was 5 feet, 8 inches. He weighed around 64kg and had brown hair and brown eyes.

Once he had signed up, Tom Leedle went to Melbourne for training. He embarked from Melbourne on board the RMS Ormonde on the 7th of March 1918. His regimental number was 3339 and he was a private. On the 4th of April 1918, just under a month after leaving Melbourne, the Ormonde berthed in Suez, Egypt. At this stage Tom Leedle was in the 43rd Battalion, and they did a month’s training in Egypt from the 4th of April till the 4th of May. On the 4th of May he left Port Tewfik in Egypt and travelled to Southampton where he arrived on 15th of May 1918. H me was sent from there to Fovant, a village in Wiltshire where there was a training camp. He underwent further training there till the 4th of June when he was transferred to the 50th Battalion. Once assigned to the 50th Battalion Private Leedle was transferred to Codford on the 4th of June 1918. He continued his training there with the 12th Training Battalion till the 8th of August 1918. From there he went to Folkstone to cross the English Channel to France. The 50th Battalion had been fighting the German offensive on the Western Front since the end of March 1918, and had participated in the famous battle at Villers-Bretonneux on ANZAC Day that year. They were then deployed in the Allied offensive which was launched on the 8th of August.  The timing of Tom Leedle’s embarkation from Folkstone with this offensive shows he was to be part of this offensive.

Private Leedle arrived in Le Havre (France) the 10th of August 1918 and was united with the 50th Battalion on the 12th of August. On the 17th of August he was put into the front line where he fought till the 13th of September 1918. On that day he was seriously injured in the Allied offensive on the Hindenburg line. He was transferred from the battlefield to Rouen on the 16th of September and embarked to England on the 18th of September. He was admitted to the voluntary aid detachment hospital in Exeter. On the 6th of December 1918 he was transferred to another war hospital, this time in Dartford. He stayed in that hospital till the 18th of Febuary 1919. After that he was continuously granted more leave until the 19th of April where he disembarked for Australia. His family (his cousin, Miss Kay, on behalf of his mother, Mrs Bessie Leedle) contacted the South Australian division of the Red Cross in October, seeking information about him and they were informed that he was ‘(Dangerously) wounded’. We do not know what his injuries were but they must have been severe for him to have left France permanently and returned to Australia.

On the day when Tom Leedle was injured, the 50th Battalion was located east of the Vendelles in France. This day was one of the most eventful for the Battalion in the month. They had 4 different companies on mission early in the morning and had successfully gained 500-700 yards of territory. However, they made a few errors and one of the companies was cut off by the enemy. Lots of the men in this company were injured. We are not sure what company Tom Leedle was in, but it is likely that he might have been one of the men injured in this attack.

The 50th Battalion had been founded in February 1916 and was made up of mainly South Australian men. It took part in lots of the major battles in World War 1. Before someone joined the 50th, they usually underwent some training in Egypt. The 50th Battalion has been described as the ‘pup’ of the 10th Battalion because when the 50th was formed, half of its men came from the 10th. The 50th shared the same blue and purple colours as the 10th in its ‘patch’. A patch was a shape with certain colours that represented the Battalion. The 50th Battalion’s inaugural Commanding Officer was called Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Hurcombe. Hurcombe was originally the second in command of the 10th Battalion before being transferred to the 50th Battalion.

Medals Tom Leedle received:

Tom Leedle received 2 medals in honour of his service. They were

·      The Britain War Memorial

·      The Victory Medal

 

ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps. The name was created by a signaller in Egypt in 1915 and has been used ever since. At first an ANZAC was a man who had served at Gallipoli, but over time it has come to mean much more than that. The ANZAC spirit is the spirit that was shown by lots of the Australian and New Zealand fighters in the First World War. Some of the qualities that someone with good ANZAC spirit has are endurance, courage, ingenuity, good humour and mateship.

A good reflection of the meaning of ANZAC spirit is found in Charles Bean’s one-volume History of Australia in the Great War, Anzac to Amiens. In describing the evacuation of the ANZACs. Charles Bean wrote ‘By dawn on December 20th Anzac had faded into a dim blue line lost amid other hills on the horizon as the ships took their human freight to Imbros, Lemnos and Egypt. But Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat.’ The spirit of ANZAC was carried into World War I by soldiers like Private Tom Leedle and his mates in the 50th Battalion.

Even though Tom Leedle was only on the battlefield for 27 days he showed extreme bravery and courage. He fought hard against the enemy to the point that he became badly wounded in the Allies offensive against the Germans in September 1918. Although we do not know exactly what he did and any specific acts of bravery, Tom Leedle definitely understood the ANZAC spirit and showed it while he was fighting.

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