Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Dimmock was born on 17th March 1880 at Toowoomba QLD, the second child of 13 and the eldest son of George and Alice Dimmock.  He had 8 sisters…Jane, Alice, Amy (died 1908), Charlotte, Lucy, Isabel, Murrouta (died 1902), Urara and 4 brothers…George, Edgar (died 1897), William and Edmund.  His parents, older sister Jane and baby Thomas moved to Mackay in late 1880 where his father started a business as a saddle and harness maker.  Thomas began his education at the Mackay Central State School and in 1894 obtained a Grammar School scholarship.  In 1897 Thomas passed the examination to be classed as a Pupil Teacher.   

When the Boer War broke out in South Africa, Thomas aged 19, was the youngest volunteer from Mackay to enlist in October 1899.  His service number was 246, his rank Bugler and he was assigned to the 1st Queensland Mounted Infantry Contingent, A Company.  He and 14 others from Mackay were given a rousing send off by the Mackay locals as they embarked on SS Tyrian on 23rd October.  A photo of the group appeared in The North Queensland Register newspaper on 6th November under the heading “The Mackay Transvaal Contingent.”  They disembarked at Brisbane 2 days later and proceeded to Meeandah Camp at Pinkenba which housed the entire 1st Queensland Contingent…a total of 262 Officers and men.  Watched by thousands of onlookers, the Contingent paraded through the main streets of Brisbane on 30th October and made its way to the Government Domain for inspection by the Governor.  On 1st November 1899 the Contingent embarked from Brisbane on the transport SS Cornwall.  During the voyage there was a flu epidemic.  The Contingent disembarked at Cape Town, South Africa, on 13th December 1899 then proceeded by train to the camp at Orange River and then later on to Belmont. 

On New Year’s Day 1900, as they welcomed in a new century, they played a major role in their first action at Sunnyside and the next day they participated in the Relief of Douglas.  In February they took part in the Relief of Kimberley then proceeded to Kroonstad and took part in operations at Paardeberg in late February.  In March the Contingent formed part of a mounted brigade that took part in operations at Poplar Grove, Bloemfontein and Driefontein.  At Bloemfontein the 2nd QLD Contingent joined them to form a Regiment.  The Regiment rested at Springfontein till the end of March then was engaged in the relieving force at Sanna’s Post on 31st March. 

April saw the Regiment joined by the 3rd Mounted Division along with the 1st and 2nd Contingents of New Zealand Mounted Rifles to form the 3rd Mounted Infantry Corps.  The Regiment left Bloemfontein on 1st May 1900 to advance to Pretoria.  They took part in engagements at Brandfort, Constantia, Vet River, Zand River, Klipriversberg and Johannesburg.  In early June they took part in operations at Pretoria then a week later at Diamond Hill.  Later that month Major H G Chauvel took over command of the Regiment which took part in operations at Reitvlei in mid-July before being transferred to Mahon’s Brigade, part of Sir Ian Hamilton’s Division.  They advanced eastward taking part in the action at Balmoral in late July and Zilikat’s Nek and Rustenburg in early August.  They proceeded northward towards Warmbad and saw action at Oliphant’s Nek in mid-August before the Regiment returned to Eastern Transvaal where they were part of a force formed which was involved in operations at Middelburg and Pan in October. 

In November orders were received for the 1st Queensland Contingent to return to Australia.  The Contingent proceeded to Cape Town where they embarked on the transport SS Orient on 13th December 1900…exactly a year to the day since they disembarked at Cape Town.  They disembarked at Brisbane on 17th January 1901 and Thomas was discharged on 23rd January 1901.  Of the 262 strong Contingent, 10 died or were killed, 1 Officer was transferred, 1 commissioned into the Imperial Army, 7 were struck off in South Africa, and 12 Officers and 231 other ranks returned to Australia. 

The following is a memoir written by Thomas’ younger sister Urara in 1980.  She shares a story about Thomas in the war. 

“I don’t remember a great deal of some of my elder members of the family as they were not at home much.  My oldest brother, Thomas, went to the Boer War at 19.  He had been a school teacher before that so that although he was a Bugler at first, he was put in the administration department when they found out he had been a school teacher and could read, write decently and do sums.  Once he was sent on a pony to take a message to another company some distance away.  He wondered what the “spats” were that kept hitting the ground as he went along and when he reached his destination, one Officer said…”Which way did you come?” and my brother told him and the Officer said “Good Lord man, you came across No Man’s Land.”  The spats he had heard were bullets from the Boers.  I often wonder if they really tried to hit him or the horse, because none did.  Anyway he was sent back a different way.  In his time he has been a Headmaster of schools all over Queensland – most of them “big” schools and he was only a small man.  Some of the schools had a reputation for being “difficult”.  Two of his sons, Harold and Thomas, were killed in the last war (WW2).  They were airmen in the Battle of Britain.”  

Upon their return home to Mackay those who served in South Africa were each presented with a gold medal by the Makay citizens in recognition of the loyalty of their youth.  Thomas returned to his profession as an assistant school teacher and was transferred to Townsville in 1901.  The following year he returned to Mackay as an assistant teacher at his old school, Mackay Central State School which was by then an all-boys school.  That year brought great sadness to his family with the death of his sister Murrouta on 5th April and a month later on the 7th May his father died.  Over the next few years Thomas was an assistant teacher at Ravenswood, near Mackay, and then Junction Park in Brisbane.  In 1910 he did an agricultural course at Gatton College near Toowoomba.

On 5th July 1911 Thomas married Kathleen (Kitty) Irene Hill at St Phillip’s Church of England in South Brisbane.  They welcomed 3 sons…Harold 1912, Stanley 1915 and Thomas 1921.

In 1912 Thomas transferred from Junction Park to be Head Teacher at Meringandan in the Toowoomba region.  He remained there till 1919 when he transferred as Head Teacher to Goondiwindi then from there to Roma in 1923.  His last transfer was to Blair State School in Ipswich in 1932.  In late 1939 he took ill and was unable to attend the end of year school functions.  He was living in Corinda at the time and was taken to St Helen’s Hospital in South Brisbane where he died on 3rd January 1940 aged 59.  He was cremated at Mt Thompson Memorial Gardens and Crematorium in Brisbane.

Thomas is commemorated on the Brisbane Boys Grammar School Boer War Honour Board located in the Great Hall at the school.

Thomas Dimmock was awarded for service in the Boer War the Queen’s South Africa Medal.  

Respectfully submitted by Sue Smith 5th September 2023.

Sources

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1069375/bundled/RCDIG1069375.pdf