Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Enlisted and served in WWI under alias Thomas George Oram

Contributed by historian Tony Wege.

Edward Charles Oram 2/4 RMTC, starving, writhing and twisting in terrible agony as dysentery tore through his gut, died in November 1943 in the mud and filth somewhere along the Thai-Burma Railway easement or perhaps in a filthy PoW “hospital” near the railway track. Twenty six years previously in April 1917, Thomas George Oram lay shivering and shaking uncontrollably in a shallow trench as shells burst around him splattering him in mud and debris, and machinegun bullets tore into the sandbags just inches from his head. Oram was a curled-up, quivering, shattered mess – suffering what was euphemistically called in those days – shell-shock. He was lying somewhere on the Bullecourt battlefield as vicious fighting raged around him.

Who were these men? They were not two but one; Edward Charles Oram of Moonee Ponds Victoria. 

Edward C Oram who had been born near London, found his way to Australia when a young man. Following the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, Oram enlisted in the AIF in September 1914. He was discharged one month later for medical reasons. Undeterred, the 18-year-old Oram re-enlisted into the AIF during January 1915 at Bendigo, Victoria. This time, he gave his name as Thomas George Oram. There is some evidence in his army file that suggests this name was that of his late father. He gave his next of kin as his mother whose then current address was a suburb of London. The army allocated Oram the AIF Regimental Number 2327 and sent him to a training establishment at Luna Park Melbourne.

After initial and pretty basic training, Pte T G Oram embarked on 10 August 1915 on the ship HMAT Persia. It was bound for Egypt. Thomas Oram was to be a reinforcement soldier for 14 Battalion which had taken heavy casualties during the current abortive Gallipoli campaign. He joined his battalion in the field on 13 November 1915 while it was fighting the Turks on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

At the end of the next couple of weeks of fighting, Thomas Oram was evacuated along with, eventually, the entire allied expeditionary force. In his case the situation was exacerbated in that he was suffering dysentery and frostbite both afflictions caused by the shocking living conditions in the crumbling and non-suitable allied trench-lines, and freezing weather. A blizzard with heavy snow and wind had swept across Gallipoli during November. It caused considerable grief for the Australians who were far from prepared for such weather. Sixteen thousand Australians suffering freeze injuries were evacuated from the Peninsula during November so Oram was in good company. Private Oram was shipped to a military hospital in Heliopolis Cairo, Egypt arriving on 14 December 1915. This was the first of his numerous hospital admissions that he was to experience for the rest of the Great War.

Private Oram, following his recovery and further training in Egypt, transferred on 4 March 1916 to the 46 Battalion when at the huge army service corps camp at Tel-el-Kerbir outside of Cairo. With significant fighting in France looming now that the Gallipoli campaign had failed and summer was approaching, the Australian army had begun a process of increasing the size of its army currently in Egypt. It did this by taking in more reinforcements from Australia and creating new battalions. The soldiers in these new battalions were to be a mix of Gallipoli veterans from original battalions like the 14 Battalion, and the new reinforcements. T G Oram thus transferred from 14 Battalion as a “veteran” to its “daughter” battalion, 46 Battalion. The whole AIF with the exception of the Light Horse regiments, the originals plus the newly created battalions, were now to go to war in France.

After landing at Marseilles on 8 June, 46 Battalion travelled by rail to the Western Front. The battalion, part of 12 Brigade 4 Australian Infantry Division, was positioned between the French towns of Albert and Bapaume about 35 kilometres northwest of city of Amiens. There, close to the village of Pozieres, they made ready for a planned assault upon German lines which would go ahead in August.

While in action at Mouquet Farm on 9 August, Pte T G Oram was hit in the head by artillery shrapnel. Fortunately his helmet saved him but he was kept in hospital for a week to recover. On 30 August he was again wounded, this time by shrapnel in his left hand. This necessitated a six week stint in hospital and convalescence at Etaples, France before being sent back to his battalion still positioned on the Western Front.[i] And just to add to everything, he was to spend two weeks in late November in hospital with Rheumatism.

Whilst again right in the front line on 7 January 1917 shooting it out with the Germans, Oram whilst under an enemy artillery barrage and being assailed by machinegun fire, cracked. His mental and nervous capacity gave way and he collapsed with extreme mental stress. In those days the condition was called “shell-shock”. He was admitted to a forward medical unit for soldiers whose nervous system had broken. In Oram’s case, he was there only two days before being sent back to the battalion. He lasted only more two days in the trenches before collapsing again. Removed from the front line, Pte Oram was transported to a hospital in France for mentally disturbed soldiers. He remained there 10 weeks while somehow his mental faculties were “normalised”.[ii]  

Once cleared by the army medicos, he was, unbelievingly, sent on 15 March 1917 to his battalion to continue to fight. Private Oram lasted three weeks in the trenches. Suffering badly with what he had been through since his time in the army and still under continuous fire, he cracked for a third time. By now the Australian divisions were beginning another huge battle against the Germans this time entrenched behind their heavily defended Hindenburg Line. This battle like Pozieres 10 months earlier has also become etched in Australian military history. It was called Bullecourt. 

On 11 April 1917, 46 Battalion was part of the Australian 4 Division ordered into the attack at Bullecourt. Heavy fighting that day caused large casualties amongst the 46 Battalion. In fact, on that day, it lost more soldiers than any other day in any battle it fought in France. Sometime, somewhere during this day amid the shot and shell plastering and sweeping the area, and with dead and dying Australians littering the battlefield, Private T G Oram, his nerves completely shattered, disappeared from his unit. He ran away.

“Desertion in the face of the enemy” was the charge when he was found two days later (13) fearfully hiding in a back area somewhere. Hauled before an army court-martial, the charge was quickly proven and the penalty applied: Death! Yes, death by a 12 man firing squad shooting him at dawn. The sentence was confirmed by the commanding officer of the British Fifth Army, Lt-General Gough on 23 April 1917. Still showing scars of previous wounds, mentally broken Pte Oram had just a few days to live.

The sentence was not carried out. Although the Australians were operating under British command, the Australian government refused permission for the British to shoot Australian soldiers under sentence of death. The death sentence had to be commuted to a gaol sentence by order of the Australian Prime Minister. General Gough had to change his orders.[iii]  Oram instead of being riddled with British bullets in a few days’ time, received a 10 year prison sentence. Then with more pressure from the Australian government and army, the sentence became two years with hard labour. Poor Pte Oram from mid June 1917 and every day thereafter while this sentence lasted, had to crack rocks with a sledge hammer or do some other form of menial hard labour whilst existing on a prison diet of “bread and water.”  

This severe, harsh and totally non-empathetic punishment lasted until 23 May 1918. After eleven months of unrelenting physical toil with barely sufficient food to nourish him, Private Oram was released to go back to 46 Battalion. By now the Australian army scattered in France was worn right down by continuous bloody fighting. Few reinforcements were coming from Australia. The battalion had been fully engaged in trying to stop the current great German March/April push into France that threatened the English Channel ports. The battalion’s losses had been heavy. It needed reinforcing for the next round of battles. Private Oram was released from gaol as one of those needed reinforcements for 46 Battalion.[iv]

On 8 August 1918, the Australian and Canadian armies attacked the German front line around Amiens and Villiers-Bretonneux and broke through. 46 Battalion with Pte Oram right in the fighting, was part of this massively successful attack. Ten days later still in the midst of terrible combat and whilst chasing retreating German troops, he was hit by an enemy bullet. It went straight through his right shoulder. Oram was carted from the battlefield and sent to a Canadian military hospital in London for treatment.[v] He was still there when the war ended on 11 November 1918.

Eventually Pte T G Oram was repatriated home.[vi] He left by ship on 8 January 1919 and arrived in Melbourne 27 February 1919.[vii] Interestingly the army decided that he would receive the three Great War campaign medals to which he should have been automatically entitled. The British army had recommended that he not get any medals at all due to his conviction for desertion. The Australian army studied his war record and determined that his long front line service and multiple woundings were enough to override the harsh British recommendation. He received during 1920 and 1921, the Victory Medal, the 1914-18 Star and the British War Medal.

Mr Oram whether as E C or T G is not absolutely known, went through the following years including the Great Depression no doubt with some degree of hardship. It is known that Mr Edward C Oram was a member of the staff of the Essendon Council pre-war and was working there when war broke out. Oram previously had told the army in 1937 that his army service under the name “Thomas George” (Oram) was not right. He signed an affidavit that stated his real name was “Edward Charles” (Oram). He certainly was using that name when working at Essendon council.

With the outbreak of war in September 1939, Edward Charles Oram signed up (under his real name) on 9 December 1939 into the Militia and was sent to the 7 Reserve Motor Transport Company as a driver. He he was just over 44 years old. The unit trained for the next three months mainly in Geelong. Seeking to serve overseas once again, Militia soldier Dvr E C Oram volunteered on 27 February 1941 for the 2/AIF. His new Service Number was VX 50010. Within two weeks he transferred to the 2/AIF unit 2/4 RMTC (at age 44) then beginning training at Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne. He was a fully qualified army driver. He sailed with the company from Sydney in April 1941 bound for, he eventually found out, the Malayan Theatre.

Once in place in Malacca and later Singapore, Dvr Oram dutifully applied himself to his work and was rewarded by Major Harris promoting him to corporal rank (1 November 1941).

Corporal E C Oram was captured by the Japanese on 15 February 1942 and was sent with his company to Selarang/Changi. He eventually found himself on the Thai-Burma Railway in either “A” or “F” Forces, clear data not being noted in his records. Regardless, he suffered badly like everyone else. His condition deteriorated even further following completion of the Railway and he died of disease, possibly dysentery, on 29 November 1943. Post war his body was exhumed, and he is buried in the CWGC cemetery at Thanbyuzayat Burma. His son Thomas also served in the Second World War.

There would be few members in the 2/AIF who had been through two lots of soldering in two wars and who had suffered like Cpl Oram had suffered. And to think he was determined to serve Australia again after the terrible experiences he went through in the Great War. This says much about his character. There was no fairy-tale end to the sad story of Cpl E C Oram. But his military life as outlined here has to be noted and respected. That is the least we can do.

[i] His wounding was noted in “The Bendigo Independent” of 19 September 1916 page 3.
[ii] His “wounding” was noted in “The Bendigo Advertiser” 9 February 1917 page 2 as well as several other Victorian papers including “The Mildura Cultivator”.
[iii] During the Great War, the British army shot 306 of their own and Commonwealth soldiers all of whom had been found guilty of desertion in the face of the enemy. No guilty Australian soldiers were ever executed by the British although 22 Canadians and five New Zealanders were.
[iv] Around this same time, the AIF which was greatly weakening everywhere, dissolved many understrength battalions and transferred the troops to surviving battalions. In 12 Brigade’s case, 47 Battalion was dissolved which meant 46 Battalion and the remaining to others (45 & 48) became a little stronger.
[v] This wounding, noted as his fourth, was announced in the Melbourne “Weekly Times” 12 October 1918 page 27.
[vi] Oram remained restless and was not deterred from flouting army law despite what he had been through even after the war ended. Somewhat understandably considering the past four years of service, he went a.w.l. from the training brigade which was his current unit. This happened on Christmas Eve 1918. He returned to camp New Year’s Day 1919. For this crime he underwent three days of field punishment and was fined eleven days of pay. One hopes the “bender” was worth it!
[vii] Private T G Oram’s name was amongst a long list of returning soldiers in board HMT Orsova announced, amongst others, in “The Ballarat Star” of 6 February 1919 page 2.