Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Joseph Blagg was born in Chinchilla on Queensland’s Darling Downs on 27 September 1915. He grew up and went to school in that town, and on leaving school went droving with his father, Joe. In between cattle drives they worked on Joe’s farm, however both men also got jobs at the Cactoblastis Experimental Farm. Called “The Bug Farm” by locals, the Experimental Farm was a prickly pear field station set up outside Chinchilla in 1924 to introduce the use of the Cactoblastis moth in the eradication of the prickly pear which had become a scourge across large areas of the state.

On 19 August 1936, a month before he turned 21, Tom married Albertina Fischer. Five years later, on 11 July 1941, he enlisted and was assigned to the Royal Australian Artillery. Tom was initially posted to the Lytton Heavy Battery and during this period was promoted to Acting Bombardier then to Acting Lance Sergeant. His rank of Lance Sergeant was confirmed in February 1942.

In WWII Fort Lytton provided the inner line of defence to prevent enemy vessels from reaching the mouth of the Brisbane River. Brisbane’s strategic significance had increased as the war progressed, and it became a major submarine base and dry dock. Vessels wishing to enter the defended port had to be intercepted and identified. There were another four forts, two on Bribie Island and two on Moreton Island, which served as the outer line of defence. Each fort was equipped with two six-inch guns, and Fort Lytton also had a signals station, a radar station, and a heavy anti-aircraft battery.[i] Tom was mostly based at Fort Lytton but also spent time at Fort Cowan Cowan on the western side of Moreton Island.

 Enemy naval vessels were noted in this area on four occasions during 1942/43. The first was on 24 March 1942 when a suspected Japanese submarine was sighted east of Stradbroke Island. While bombs were dropped on it, no evidence was found of the submarine’s destruction. On 4 June 1942 another submarine was sighted off Moreton Island. It was later identified as one of the vessels involved in the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour which had taken place a few days earlier on 31 March. On 14 May 1943 the Australian hospital ship, Centaur, was struck and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Brisbane coastline with the loss of 268 lives, and finally, on 4 June 1943, a Japanese submarine fired on the American ship MV Edward Chambers off Cape Moreton.[ii]

In September 1942 Tom transferred from the C.M.F. to the A.I.F. and in May 1943 was assigned to the Torres Strait Fixed Defence and sent to Thursday Island. By this time the Japanese were making constant air raids on targets in Australia’s north. Singapore had fallen on 15 February 1942 and the first raid on Darwin occurred on 19th. Two weeks later both Broome and Wyndham in Western Australia were bombed, followed by raids on Derby, Katherine, and elsewhere. In July 1942 three raids were made upon Townsville. Thursday Island was bombed by the Japanese twice, on 15th and 20th March 1942, and there were nine raids on Horn Island. By the end of 1942, 5000 soldiers were stationed on Horn Island and another 2000 on Thursday Island. In all, between March 1942 and November 1943 the Japanese made 64 bombing and/or strafing raids on Darwin, and another 33 on other northern Australian targets.[iii]

Tom’s posting to Thursday Island lasted 18 months, although he spent time on nearby Horn Island and was also sent to other locations on the Australian mainland for further weapons training. He was promoted to Acting Sergeant in February 1944 and his appointment as Sergeant was confirmed in June.

In November 1944 Tom was transferred to 1st Australian Base Depot Personnel. What he did there is not known. He was transferred again in January 1945, this time to 16th Australian Infantry Training Battalion in New South Wales, where he remained until discharged on compassionate grounds on 14 August 1945. His rank had reverted to Private a few days before, but no explanation for this was recorded in his service record.

Tom’s father, Joe, had died a few months earlier, in April 1945, and his wife, Tina, was looking after the farm and raising their three young children. In October 1945 Tom made an application to the Lands Office to be issued with land under the Queensland Soldiers Land Settlement Scheme, stating that the land left by his father was insufficient to support his family. The application was unsuccessful so in 1946 he started working for the Chinchilla Shire Council, first as a truck driver but using his skill with explosives to good use in roadwork. He rose to the position of works foreman and stayed with the Council until his retirement after almost 30 years of service. Tom took early retirement in 1974 due to ill health. He had developed emphysema and died in the Chinchilla hospital on 2 July 1980, aged 64. He is buried in Chinchilla's Tanderra Lawn Cemetery.

A plaque was erected for Tom in the ANZAC Gardens of Remembrance at Pinnaroo Cemetery at Aspley in Brisbane, Wall 47 Row D.

[i] Fort Lytton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lytton accessed 11 May 2025.
[ii] Fort Cowan Cowan https://en.wikiipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Cowan_Cowan accessed 11 May 2025.
[iii] Onfray, Robert, Even more war stories – how Australia came under attack from air raids during WWII, https://www.robertonfray.com/2022/07/08/even-more-stories-how-australia-came-under-attack-from-air-raids-during-wwii/ accessed 12 May 2025.