SURGEY, Thomas Edwin
| Service Number: | 722 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 August 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 8th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Malvern, Victoria, Australia, 1890 |
| Home Town: | Mildura, Mildura Shire, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Mildura State School, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Horticulturist |
| Died: | Died of Wounds, Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Dardanelles, Turkey, 29 April 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula, Canakkale Province, Turkey |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Merbein Memorial Gates, Mildura Methodist Church & Sunday School Great War Honor Roll, Mildura Presbyterian Church Honour Roll, Mildura Primary School War Memorial, Red Cliffs Mildura Settlers Club Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 722, 8th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 722, 8th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: '' | |
| 19 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 722, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Benalla, Melbourne |
Help us honour Thomas Edwin Surgey's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
On 22nd August, 1914, at 24 years of age, Tom Surgey travelled by train to the Broadmeadows training camp. His family’s business (E. B. Surgey and Sons) supported the war effort, by helping to build the Mildura Rifle Range and by donating two draught horses for use by the expeditionary force. Tom wrote a cheerful letter home from Broadmeadows saying he was ‘with a first-rate crowd of comrades.’
On 25th April, 1915, Tom landed at Gallipoli and was wounded the same day by a sniper while fetching water for his comrades. He received gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen and was transferred to a hospital ship, where he died of his wounds. He was buried at sea.
Tragedy struck the family again on Monday 8 November, 1915. A story in the Mildura Cultivator 10 November, 1915 reports the death of Tom’s father, Edwin Surgey. The article states Mr Surgey had been: “…..brooding a great deal about this terrible war and was wishing that he might be allowed to go. A brother enlisted recently and that caused him additional worry which quite overcame him. On Monday morning his sole surviving son John Herman (Jack) Surgey, left him at 8.30 o'clock to do some discing work among the vines. He understood then that his father was going to Merbein, but on returning to the stable at 11.30 o'clock he found his father's bicycle there. On looking about, he discovered the dead body of his father, who had shot himself in the head with a rifle.”
The article describes a note left by Edwin Surgey saying: If he could have enlisted it would have been better. His wife, he said, had been a good brave wife and Jack a good brave son and brother. He hoped to join his dear son Tom and trusted that his brother Herman would soon be back, that the war would soon be over and that everybody would be happy again. Edwin’s brother Herman, who enlisted at the age of 43 was returned to Australia in July 1916.
Another sad aside to this tragedy is recorded in Thomas Edwin Surgey’s war record. His mother Martha Louise wrote several letters seeking the return of her son’s Reynolds Brass euphonium which had been a gift from his brother. It seems it was not found.
Edited from an article by the Mildura & District Genealogical Society Inc.
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