Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Jackson David #6486 15th Battalion

Tom David had been born at Fassifern Station to Agnes and Protheroe David. The family would appear to have moved around considerably working on various properties in Queensland. Tom reported his occupation as stockman.

Tom presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 2nd May 1916. He was 30 years old and originally listed his mother as next of kin, but his records were changed to record Margaret Kerr David as his wife. Tom was drafted as a reinforcement for the 15th Battalion and embarked on the “Boonah” in Brisbane on 21st October 1916; arriving in Plymouth on 10th January 1917.

After two months in the Training Battalion at Codford, Tom crossed the channel and after transiting through the big British base at Etaples, finally joined his unit on 7th March. Two weeks later Tom was in hospital with mumps; a common illness amongst newly arrived troops.

During the winter of 1916/17, almost all fighting on the Western Front on the Somme had ceased with both sides fighting the weather rather than each other. What was not known by the British commanders was that the Germans had spent the winter constructing a heavily defended series of trenches and blockhouses on high ground some twenty miles behind their front line on the Somme. As spring arrived, the German forces opposing the British began a strategic withdrawal back to their new position, which became known as the Hindenburg Line. The British Forces; which included the Australians, carefully followed the German withdrawal until they came up against the Hindenburg Line.

When Tom joined the 15th, the battalion and the rest of the Australian 4th Division, they were facing the Germans on the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. While he was in hospital, preparations were being made for an attack by the 4th Division. The British General who planned the attack had been persuaded to employ a new secret weapon, the tank. So convinced were the planners of the invincibility of this new wonder weapon that they dispensed with the usual artillery barrages and support for advancing infantry.

Tom rejoined his battalion on 9th April 1917. The attack against the defences at Bullecourt would go ahead the next day. In the early hours of 10th April, the Australians crawled out of the jumping off trenches to line up on the starting tapes. As the men lay down it began to snow. The exposed soldiers, who were waiting for the tanks to arrive to spearhead the advance, were easily spotted by the German defenders. None of the tanks made it to the start line because of mechanical trouble or losing their way. The attack was postponed for 24 hours but the men were left lying in their exposed positions.

The following day the attack went ahead with no alteration to the plan of the previous day. The few tanks that did make it to the start line broke down or were knocked out by shell fire. Many of the Australians advancing in the snow were easy targets for enfilading machine gun fire. A few companies of Australian infantry did make it to the first line of German trenches but they were soon in danger of being surrounded. The retreat was every man for himself.

Bullecourt shook the faith of the Australians in their British Commanders. Albert Jacka, winner of Australia’s first VC at Gallipoli and by 1917 a Captain refused point blank to have anything further to do with tanks and he was mistrustful of British planning for the rest of the war. Charles Bean, the official war historian wrote of Bullecourt, the plan had as much chance of success as a plan to capture the moon.

The Australians suffered 3000 casualties at Bullecourt on 11th April. Tom David was one of them. He was listed as Missing in Action. There was a possibility that he had been captured as quite a few men were. His wife was advised that he was missing and she began making frantic enquiries as to her husband’s whereabouts. Margaret’s letter to the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Inquiry Service located on the Australian War Memorial website is a clear indication of her grief and loss. In spite of Margaret’s urging, the Red Cross were unable to find any survivors of Bullecourt from the 15th who knew Tom; which is not surprising as he had been with the battalion just over four weeks, two of which were spent in hospital. He would have bee quite unknown to most of them.

On 7th September 1917, Margaret was granted a war widow’s pension of 2 pounds per fortnight. A court of Inquiry conducted in November 1917 officially listed Tom David as Killed in Action. His remains were never recovered and his fate remained unknown. In 1938, the newly crowned King George VI and his wife Elizabeth unveiled the Australian National Memorial at Villers Brettoneux. The memorial lists over 10,000 Australians who died in France and have no known grave. Tom David’s name appears on the memorial.