SWIFT, John Alexander
| Service Number: | 3899 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 19 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 52nd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Clarence, Tasmania, Australia, 29 September 1870 |
| Home Town: | Sandy Bay, Hobart, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | State School, Bellerive,Tasmania, Australia |
| Occupation: | Plumber |
| Died: | Killed in action, Mouquet Farm, France, 3 September 1916, aged 45 years |
| Cemetery: |
Serre Road Cemetery No.1 Plot VIII, Row F, Grave No. 26. |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Hobart Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 19 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3899, 12th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 3899, 12th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: RMS Orontes embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
| 24 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 3899, 12th Infantry Battalion, RMS Orontes, Melbourne | |
| 3 Sep 1916: | Involvement 3899, 52nd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 3899 awm_unit: 52nd Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Lance Sergeant awm_died_date: 1916-09-03 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Son
SWIFT, Pte. Thomas William West, 1242. 12th Bn. Killed in action 25th April, 1915. Age 21. Son of John Alexander Swift and Sarah D. C. Swift, of 87, Prines St., Sandy Bay, Tasmania. Native of Hobart. Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli 35.
1242 Private Thomas William West Swift, 12th Battalion, a 22 year old from Sandy Bay, Tasmania was killed in action at the landing on Anzac Cove, 25th April 1915. He was the son of John Alexander Swift and Sarah Swift, of Hobart. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey.
In Swift’s Red Cross file Private E.A. Hall of the 12th Battalion said that Swift was seen dead in his dugout by his friends on the 26th April. A shrapnel bullet had entered his head through his mouth.
Thomas’s father, 3899 Lance Sergeant John Alexander Swift, who had enlisted at the age of 45, in the 52nd Battalion, had also written to the Red Cross in February 1916, while he was in Egypt, and stated that a Rupert Banks, a mate of Thomas’s, had seen him shot in the head during the second day of the Landing, and that he had lived for about half an hour. The father, John Swift, also said in his letter that he was quite satisfied that nothing more could be found out about his son.
John Swift held a long service medal for at least 25 years service in the Tasmanian Volunteer Engineers Corp and he enlisted in August, 1915. By September 1916, he was serving with the 52nd Battalion during the last of the AIF’s attacks on Mouquet Farm in France. In Beans history of the AIF, describing the 52nd Battalion’s attack, “At this stage a sergeant of the 52nd named Swift, whose son had been killed at the Landing, crept out between the trench and the wire with a rifle, and presently reported that he had shot the machine gunner who had barred that flank.”
John Swift was stated by Bean to have been killed the next day during the last battle at Mouquet Farm, his death officially recorded as sometime between the 3rd and the 7th September, 1916. John Swift has a grave in the Serre Road Cemetery No 1 Beaumont-Hamel, France. His identity disc was recovered and returned to his wife in 1923.
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