RANDALL, Thomas Charles John
| Service Number: | 4530 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Grass Valley, Northam, Western Australia , 1895 |
| Home Town: | Beverley, Beverley, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | State School, Beverley, Western Australia |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 3 November 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Beverley District Honour Roll WW1, Beverley Jacobs Well District HR, Beverley War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 31 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 4530, 28th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 4530, 28th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Fremantle | |
| 3 Nov 1916: | Involvement Lance Corporal, 4530, 28th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 4530 awm_unit: 28 Battalion awm_rank: Lance Corporal awm_died_date: 1916-11-03 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Geoff Tilley
Thomas Charles John Randall was born at Grass Valley, near Northam Western Australia in 1895 to John and Mary Randall. His schooling was conducted in the district of East Beverley and on leaving school became a farmer with his father.
Thomas enlisted into the AIF at Blackboy Hill in February 1916 and was attached to 28th Battalion. He embarked from Fremantle in March 1916 for Egypt where he conducted further training with his battalion. Whilst in Tel-el-Kebir he was hospitalised in May 1916.
In August 1916 he embarked for the Western Front France arriving in the Somme. It was in September 1916 he was promoted to Lance Corporal. The battle for Pozieres was now over with the Australians eventually capturing the village.
It was during September that Thomas with his battalion moved to the battlefields of Flanders in Belgium remaining there until the end of October where the battalion returned to the Somme region. Whilst in Belgium Thomas wrote to his parents.
This time we have been in the trenches about seven days and my, it was cold. I used to get up at 3am in the morning and take three men with me and go out on a listening post all day until 7 at night. We were only fifty yards from the German trenches in a thick wood and at one night could hear them mending their barb wire. We could not shoot because it only gave our position away. We took two prisoners and killed a few and got some useful information out of them. I cut a button off one of the prisoners’ coats for a souvenir, he wrote.[1]
It was in November 1916 that Thomas with his battalion were now back on the Somme near the village of Fleurs, only a few kilometres from Pozieres.
It was on the 3rd / 4th of November 1916 that Thomas with his battalion moved into the front line to relieve 53rd Battalion. Moving into the trenches they found them in very bad order with mud from 12 inches to 3 feet deep. The battalion went about repairing the trenches and preparing for an attack the following day on the German line known as Gird Trench.
When the attack commenced, the inaccuracy of the artillery fire on the German trenches allowed the Germans to remain in their trenches which allowed them were to bring heavy machine gun and rifle fire on the advancing Australians. This prevented the Australians from reaching their objectives suffering heavy casualties. The 28th Battalion diary for this attack recorded the following casualties. 58 killed, 166 wounded and 50 missing. Thomas was to be one of the missing.
It was during this attack that Thomas was officially recorded as killed in action at Fleurs. Red Cross file records that a witness states he was hit in the back by a shell fragment later dying on the battlefield. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. He was 20 years of age.
In 2010 his family dedicated a memorial plaque in the Honour Avenues of Kings Park for Thomas. The plaque is located in May Drive.
He has not been forgotten and is remembered with honour.
[1] The Blue & White Diamond. History of the 28th Battalion. 1915 -1919. Page 151. Neville Browning.
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