Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Norman Oma, who was in his 28th year when he died, had been prior to enlisting, in the Commissioner of Railways' office, Perth, Western Australia, the Chief Mechanical Engineers office at Perth, and the Railway Stores at Midland Junction for five or six years.

He was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, his father was a Norwegian and his mother came from a German family. Norman was the eldest of six sons. The whole family moved from NSW to Western Australia in 1896, via ships from Sydney, to Fremantle, and thence by rail to Coolgardie, in the West Australian gold fields. About eight years later they moved to Midland Junction.

Norman was in England from January 1917 with the 12th Training Brigade where he was made a Sergeant. He was sent to France in 1918 and reverted to Private on the day he was taken on strength of the 48th Battalion on 5 April 1918. He was killed in action on his first day with the Battalion, near Dernancourt. He and 2015 Sergeant Marcus Henry Macloy 48th Battalion were both killed by a stray shell when moving up behind the lines.

Norman’s mother communicated many times with Base Records over his personal effects, but his possessions were lost when the ship carrying them was sunk when returning to Australia. Although buried where he fell, his grave was lost after the war.