Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Henry Young was the son of Christopher and Mary Young and had been born at Bendigo, Victoria. He enlisted and served as ‘Thomas Young’. His father was deceased and his mother passed away the month after he enlisted during October 1914.

He had three brothers who also enlisted in the AIF and the youngest, 6912 Pte. Clarence Victor Young 21st Battalion AIF, was later killed in action in Belgium, on 22 March 1918, at 19 years of age.

Thomas had been employed by the Metropolitan Board of Works for upwards of fifteen years. He said to have “been of a fine physique, being six feet in height, and a prominent football player for the Richmond Balmain Club for many seasons. Possessed of a courageous and dauntless spirit, he was among the first batch to enter the Broadmeadows camp.”

Thomas served at the Anzac landing on 25 April 1915 with the 14th Battalion. He was evacuated with an injured back on 21 May 1915. He never returned to Gallipoli and was sent to England during mid-1916. He rejoined the 14th Battalion at the front during October 1916, and was sent to hospital with trench feet two months later. He rejoined the 14th Battalion during February 1917 and was killed in action on 29 March 1917. At 6:30am on that day, George and three other men, including Lieutenant McQueen of the 14th Battalion were in a cellar in Bapaume used as battalion headquarters. A mine, working on a clockwork device, and left by the Germans when they retreated, exploded, killing the four men. His remains were lost.

On the death of his mother Thomas’s sister, Christina French, became his next of kin.

His brother Francis Young 8th Battalion had been badly hit in the hip by shrapnel during the Gallipoli campaign and returned to Australia in late 1915. Another brother, George Philip Young, was returned to Australia during 1918 by the General Officer Commanding AIF, General Birdwood, for ‘family reasons’, probably due to the fact he had two brothers killed and one badly wounded.