TOMLEY, John William
| Service Number: | 2031 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 January 1915, Liverpool, NSW |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, January 1895 |
| Home Town: | Moss Vale, Wingecarribee, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer with Railway Permanent Way (Track worker) |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Turkey, 6 August 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Remembered on Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli. |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing, Moss Vale & District Pictorial Honour Roll, Moss Vale RSL War Memorial, Moss Vale War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Jan 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2031, 1st Infantry Battalion, Liverpool, NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Jun 1915: | Involvement Private, 2031, 1st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Jun 1915: | Embarked Private, 2031, 1st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney |
Help us honour John William Tomley's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Daryl Jones
Son of John and Ellen Winifred Tomley, of Moss Vale, New South Wales.
Private John William Tomley, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Tomley, Moss Vale, has been officially reported missing. He went with the fifth reinforcements, 1st Battalion. He was 21 years of age, a native of Waverley, and was working for two years on the railway duplication works at Moss Vale, where his parents have been in business for some years.
Biography contributed by John Oakes
John W Tomley was born at Waerley about Januay 1895. he worked in the Railways Permanent Way (Track) Branch.
Tomley enlisted at Liverpool on 18th January 1915 and gave his mother, Eileen Winifred Tomley of Moss Vale as his next of kin. He was allotted to the 1st Battalion. He embarked HMAT ‘Ceramic’ on 25th June 1915.
By 5th August he was on Gallipoli. He was reported missing between 6th and 11th August – the day after he landed. A Court of Enquiry held in France ten months later, on 5th June 1916, determined that he had in fact been killed in action at that time.
A 1967 letter from his sister, Mrs Pierson, seeking the issue of an Anzac Commemorative Medallion, claims that he was killed in the trenches at Lone Pine on Friday night, 6th August, at nine o’clock. These facts are derived from the report of Pte S T Gallaway (428) who further stated that:
‘a bomb hit him on the head and blew him to pieces. [I] saw the body being carried out of the trench and believe it was buried in Brown’s Dip.’
The grave was subsequently lost and Tomley is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.
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