Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Eldest of three brothers who served in WWII, Corporal Thomas Joseph Kavanagh (Service No:QX26623) enlisted in the AIF on 5 January 1942 as a Private (Trade Group - Cook) and Marched Out to 7 Training Battalion and then 7 Pioneer Coy. Corporal Kavanagh served with 2/109 Australian General Transport (AGT) Coy and 215 Australian Supply Depot (ASD) Platoon, and was attached to 2 QLD L of C Bulk Issue Petrol and Oil Depot (BIPOD) at Discharge on 9 August 1946.

Joe was born in Brisbane QLD in 1906, second of nine children of Harry William Kraushaar (b1883 in Surrey, England) and Jane Barber (b1884 in Maclean, New South Wales). Harry immigrated in 1896, arriving in Brisbane on board the Merkara, and settled in Brisbane where he was a Public Servant when he and Jane married in 1908. During WWI, Harry changed the family surname to Kavanagh - he and Jane settled in Brisbane where they raised their family and Harry was a Public Servant.

Joe worked as a Storeman and Packer in Brisbane, where in 1927 he married Helen McCallum Stewart Bryson (b1908 in Glasgow, Scotland) - Helen immigrated with her parents and siblings, arriving in Brisbane in 1911 on board the Torilla. Joe and Helen settled in Sandgate, where they raised their family and Joe worked as a Farm Machinery Mechanic until he enlisted in the Army in 1942. Following his Discharge, Joe and Helen separated, and by 1949 Joe was working in Brisbane as a Pastry Cook and living with Theodora (a Cook). Through the 1950s Joe and Theodora lived in Brisbane - Joe worked as a Brewery Employee and Steward at the Yeerongpilly Golf Club, where Theodora was a Cook. By 1959 Joe and Theodora had moved to Rockhampton, where both worked at the Fitzroy Golf Club - Joe as a Steward and Theodora as a Cook. In the 1960s the couple worked in Rockhampton - Joe as a Barman and Theodora as a Snack Bar Proprietress - before moving to Keppel Sands, where Joe worked as a Steward until his death in 1982.