Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ballarat & District in the Great War

Pte Thomas Sydney Welsh

I have been fortunate to have met some extraordinary people throughout my life – during my music and theatre career, and then later those connected to the history of my home town. When I first met Syd Welsh, he was already in his 80’s, but he still had that remarkable sparkle that only really good people possess. Anyone fortunate enough to have known Syd will know exactly what I mean: he was truly one of a kind. And Syd enjoyed nothing better than a natter, and I spent many a happy time talking with him. It was through these talks that I got to know about his uncle, Tom Welsh.

The family background was fairly typical of Australia during this period – Charles Welsh was born in the small fishing village of Pittenweem, in Fife, Scotland, in 1845. Whilst Elizabeth Tanner came from the English village of Lyndhurst in Hampshire’s New Forest, where she was born in 1851.

From the outset, life was tough for Syd’s uncle. Thomas Sydney Welsh’s birth at Waterloo, near Beaufort, on 26 April 1892, was to prove difficult for his 41-year-old mother and would ultimately take her life. It was a tragic reality that childbirth was a very dangerous process. Elizabeth Henrietta Tanner, and her husband, Charles Douglas Welsh, had already gone through eight pregnancies, and Tom was to be their fifth son. But before the day was done, the tiny baby was without his mother.

The care and raising of a newborn would most likely have fallen to the eldest of the family, Harriet, who was 17 at the time of her mother’s death. It certainly would have been expected that she would take on the maternal role for all the younger children. And practicalities insisted that everyone would just pitch in.
At this time, Charles Welsh was working as a boundary rider on the Langi Kal Kal Estate. The property was then owned by Charles Campbell and was renowned for ‘the fine stud of merino sheep bred there.’ It was certainly a beautiful area. A train trip from Carngham to Langi Kal Kal Station, as described by a writer for the Australasian newspaper, painted an epic picture.

‘…As we neared Langi Kal Kal the appearance of the country changed considerably. Every step on our way brought us nearer the hills, which were now close at hand. To the north-west are densely wooded ranges, with high hills showing beyond them. The Pyrenees were not far distant to the left, and the Mount Misery range was showing close by on the right. The country we travelled over was an excellent pasture land for sheep, but different in its character to that nearer Carngham; the soil was not such a strong clay, and had more sand and fewer ironstone pebbles in it. In some places the timber is getting very scanty, and in a few years, there will be large patches of bare bleak plain…’
This was to be Tom Welsh’s backyard.

When he reached school age, Tom would journey daily into nearby Trawalla. Given the distance of over 20 kilometres, it is safe to assume that the trip would have been done by pony. The family home, with its own paddocks, was on the Langi Kal Kal Estate.

On 21 January 1908, a bushfire swept through the area towards the Langi Kal Kal Estate. Fanned by a strong south-easterly breeze, the fire pushed through paddocks owned by Charles Welsh. Around 30-40 men from the Beaufort Fire Brigade and fire carts from Langi Kal Kal and Trawalla Estates, plus station hands and local residents fought the blaze, preventing it from crossing the road and getting into the grass paddocks of Langi. The fire burned very close to the Welsh family home, but it was saved by the hard-working firefighters. Several hundred acres of grass and a few miles of fencing were destroyed that day. It was a reminder of just how dangerous life on the land could be.

However, the Welsh boys felt at home in this sometimes unforgiving country, and farming became a way of life for at least two of them. When his older brother, William, moved to Curlewis on the Bellarine Peninsula, Tom went with him. The area, which had its own post office and railway station, was known for having ‘plenty of farms.’ It had no shops as such, but the trip into nearby Geelong was only a short one.

Both William and Tom worked as farm labourers and lived together in Scarborough Road. It was very different to the countryside around Langi Kal Kal – instead of the mountains, their home was now within sound of the ocean.

When their father’s health began to fail, he, too moved to the Geelong area. His death from liver disease on 5 February 1914, was therefore not unexpected.

On 9 February 1916, William married Beaufort girl, Dorothy McCallum. So it was, that when Tom enlisted at Geelong on 17 October that same year, he was effectively leaving behind the beginnings of a new family.

Tom had tried to enlist earlier, but a double varicocele (a sometimes problematic condition that was immediately checked for by the examining doctor in all prospective AIF volunteers) brought immediate rejection. Under usual circumstances, surgery would have been required to correct the problem before Tom was able to present himself again, but by late 1916 the need for new recruits circumvented this. The Senior Medical Officer at the Geelong Camp, Horace Hayes, confirmed the presence of the double varicocele when he noted Tom’s physical description – he was 5-feet 8½-inches tall, weighed 10-stone 11-pounds and had a chest measurement of 36 to 38½-inches. Along with the varicocele, Hayes also recorded that Tom had three vaccination marks on his left arm, a scar over the side of his left eye, that his eyesight was normal and he had good physical development. Tom nominated Presbyterian as his preferred religious faith.

On completing his attestation, Tom asked that, as both his parents were deceased, his brother, William, be named as his legal next-of-kin. He also stated that he had no previous military training.

When Tom later had his photograph taken, proudly sporting the red and white diamonds of the 24th Battalion, the first thing that you notice is the obvious sparkle in his eyes – brown according to Doctor Hayes – and you could just make out his dark complexion and dark brown hair, which was all but obscured by his slouch hat.

Having been accepted into the AIF, Tom entered camp on 17 October. He was transferred to R Company of the 2nd Training Battalion two weeks later.

At Melbourne’s Royal Park Camp on 15 November, Tom was posted to the 18th reinforcements destined for the 24th Infantry Battalion with the regimental number of 6423. He underwent a final physical examination on 23 November, before embarking at Melbourne later the same day onboard HMAT Hororata.

The urgent need for shipping at the outset of the war resulted in transports being procured from numerous private companies. As has previously been mentioned, the Hororata, which weighed 9,400 tons and had an average cruise speed of 14 knots or 25.92 kmph, was leased by the Commonwealth from the owners, the New Zealand Shipping Company.

It was a long, slow voyage to England, and the Hororata did not dock at Plymouth until the 29 January 1917 after nearly ten weeks at sea. Two days later, Tom marched into the 6th Training Battalion at Larkhill Camp.

Tom received nearly three months further training before he proceeded to France via Folkestone on 25 April. He passed through the 2nd Australian Divisional Base Depot at Étaples on the way to joining his unit at Mametz on 13 May. The 24th had just come out of the line at Noreuil during the Second Battle of Bullecourt. They had been badly cut about during the first day, and recorded 106 deaths for this tour.

It was not until September that Tom was to experience a full-scale battle on the Western Front. The 24th was deployed in the Battle of Menin Road on 20 September. They were held in reserve during the second stage – the Battle of Polygon Wood – before once again forming part of the attack on Broodseinde Ridge. Even before zero hour (6am), the men came under enemy shellfire, which increased as the men moved forward. At some point during the early stages of the attack, Tom received shrapnel wounds to his left wrist and upper arm. In all probability, he was able to make his own way back to the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance for treatment. He was then transferred to the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station at Brandhoek, before being placed on an ambulance train bound for Camiers.

After being admitted to the 4th General Hospital, Tom’s wounds were assessed as ‘slight,’ but he was still slated for evacuation to England. He left France on 10 October and was admitted to the Military Hospital in Devonport the following day, where it appears that his wounded wrist caused the most concern.

Following a brief admission to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford on 2 November, Tom was discharged to a two-week furlough. On 19 November, he reported to the No1 Command Depot at Sutton Veny. He was still not fit, however, and was classed B1a2, which ostensibly meant he would be ready for duty in three to four weeks.

Unfortunately, Tom was to require minor surgery to a hydrocele, which was tapped and drained at the Sutton Veny Hospital on 5 December. He returned to camp ten days later, where he was still classed B1a2.
In beginning the process of returning to his unit, Tom was sent to the Overseas Training Brigade, Sandhill Camp, at Longbridge-Deverill on 17 January 1918. During his time there, Tom received a full examination by the camp dentist and was passed “dentally fit.”
Tom sailed back to France on 1 February and rejoined his unit behind the lines at Lottinghem in Northern France.

On 8 March 1918, the 24th Battalion entered the line at Bas-Warneton, some 5.9-kilometres from Messines. They held the left of the Brigade sector opposite the ruins of Warneton, with the River Douve on their left flank. The enemy artillery was particularly hostile during the early part of the day, causing multiple casualties. Amongst those killed was young Tom Welsh.

Chaplain Frederick Cleverdon, who was attached to the 23rd Battalion, was tasked with burying Tom and five of his comrades the following day. Private George Brown, who was the battalion carpenter, was responsible for marking Tom’s grave in the extension to the Rosenberg Chateau Cemetery. Sometimes referred to as “Red Lodge,” the cemetery would become a cause of protracted discussions following the conclusion of the war. The owner (believed to have been the Motte family, who were brewers in Armentieres), on returning to the shattered remains of his chateau, was unhappy with the presence of a military cemetery on the property. Despite years of negotiations by the (then) Imperial War Graves Commission, the land could not be secured in perpetuity. Thus, the decision was finally made in 1930 to exhume all those buried there and move them about 1 kilometre south-east for reburial in the Berks Cemetery Extension at Ploegsteert.

Tom’s final wish was that all his belongings and property be given to his brother, William. He had completed his soldier’s Will in the back of his pay book on 22 July 1917, which was then witnessed by two men from B Company of the 24th Battalion.

Sadly, all of Tom’s personal effects (which included a metal cigarette case, leather cigarette case, wallet, YMCA writing pad, letters, photos, cards, a religious book, note book, scarf, and a scent bottle) were all lost at sea when the steamer Barunga was torpedoed and sunk on 15 July 1918.

Neither did William receive his late brother’s medals, as the military saw the right of primogeniture to outweigh that of a Last Will and Testament. The medals were sent to the eldest son, George Welsh, whose young son, Syd, would develop a long and lasting affection for the uncle he never met.

In seeking to honour the memory of their late brother, Henry Welsh and his wife Janey, named their new baby son, Thomas Sydney. Tragically, the baby was to die in infancy on 18 June 1918.

During the Second World War, Leading Aircraftsman Syd Welsh found himself at a loose end in Armentieres. Despite apparently breaking all sorts of rules and regulations, Syd managed to cross the border into Belgium to pay a special visit to his uncle, Private Thomas Sydney Welsh. He was the first of the Welsh family to see the grave, now marked by a permanent Commonwealth War Graves white headstone, and bearing the words chosen for Tom, “Unselfish, kind & true.” These same words are exactly how I will always remember his nephew, Syd.