Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Henry Francis, son of Cassowary cane farmer Alfred Francis and his wife Margaret Anne, was born in 1895. In January 1916, he enlisted in Townsville, on the same day as Andrew Jack of Mossman. Tom arrived in France in April 1916, assigned to the 26th Battalion. Tom didn't fight in all of their 26'th engagements because, like many troops, he spent time in and out of hospital, beginning with a bout of mumps soon after arrival, and continuing with trench feet and influenza. But Tom was in the thick of the Allied offensive from May 1918 that forced German troops to retreat and finally yield in November. A letter from Tom describes some of the action: ' Old Fritz used to give us a few shells about three, and one morning about six o'clock he put over High Explosive shrapnel, the first one burst over our trench and wounded a lad in the next bivvie just above the ankle (and he has lost his foot) ... One night he gave us a lot of gas and we had our helmets on for a couple of hours. ... Every morning he used to strafe the village of Buire for about an hour with gas and High Explosive shells.' Tom later suffered after-effects of exposure to gas. After the war, Tom married Barbara Curtoys in England, then he and his bride returned to cane farming at Upper Cassowary and brought up two children Celia and Harry there. Tom served the community as a Shire Councillor from 1933 until 1935 and died in 1971. Courtesy of The Douglas Shire History Society.