SPILLANE, Thomas Francis
| Service Number: | 1001 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 February 1915, Liverpool, New South Wales |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 17th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia , 6 April 1890 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Tramway Employee |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 27 February 1917, aged 26 years |
| Cemetery: |
Warlencourt British Cemetery IV B 3 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Municipality of Waterloo Roll of Service No 4 |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Feb 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Liverpool, New South Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| 12 May 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 1001, 17th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 12 May 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1001, 17th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Sydney |
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"WAR CASUALTIES. KILLED IN ACTION. PRIVATE THOMAS SPILLANE
Official intimation has been received by Mrs. C. Spillane, of Killarney, Pawls-road, Waterloo, that her only son, Private Thos. Spillane, had been killed in action in France. He was 24 years old when he left Australia in May, 1915, and served in Gallipoli. He was employed in the Electrical Engineers Department of the N.S.W. Government Tramways." - from the Sydney Morning Herald 29 Mar 1917 (nla.gov.au)
Biography contributed by John Oakes
Thomas Francis SPILLANE (Service Number 1001) was born in Sydney on 5th April 1890. He joined the Tramways as a cleaner at Ultimo in May 1907 . He was ‘dispensed with’ the following month as‘(Unsuitable)’. He was re-employed a month later as a shop boy at Randwick, but after only a week was dismissed for playing cards in working hours. On appeal, he was re-employed three months later as a cleaner at Waverley depot. He transferred to Dowling Street depot in April 1909, where he was dismissed again in January 1910, On appeal he was reinstated after a week, ‘to be given a final chance’. He transferred to Fort Macquarie depot in April 1910. He was promoted to general labourer in April 1911. In December 1911 he was transferred to Newtown, and in April 1912 back to Waverley, where he became a pitman’s assistant. In January 1913 he was transferred to Sydney and was made a controllerman there in July.
In April 1914 he was dismissed yet again, for (1) failing to tender his fare to the conductor when he presented himself on a Daceyville tram on 21st March, and (2) giving a wrong name to a ticket examiner in connection with the first charge. On appeal to the Appeals Board, it was established that he did not offer to pay when the conductor first asked for fares but when the conductor came again he paid and was in the act of paying when the examiner boarded the tram. When the examiner asked him where he boarded he told him ‘at the depot’. The Appeals Board decided the case would be met by reinstating Spillane, with loss of pay while out of the service (about a month).
In February 1915 he was released from duty to enlist in the AIF at Liverpool. He was allotted to the newly-formed 17th Battalion as one of its original members. He was embarked from Sydney in May 1915 for the Middle East. He was twice absent from parade and was Absent Without Leave from his quarters in Egypt for two days in July 1915. He was punished by confinement to barracks and loss of pay. He was sent to Gallipoli in August. In October he spent three days in hospital there, before returning to duty, but was again sent to hospital in December. This time he was was returned to Alexandria, suffering from enteric fever. He was discharged to a convalescent depot in March 1916. Iin April he returned to duty. A month later, in May 1916, he was sent to France.
He was ‘taken on strength’ by the 17th Battalion in France in August 1916. In January 1917 he was Absent Without Leave for 11 days and was punished with ’28 days F.P. (Field Punishment) No. 2’, and forfeited 39 days’ pay.
On 27th February 1917 he was killed in action. The 17th Battalion had just relieved the 18th in position in Malt Trench, near Warlencourt. Tom Spillane was building a position for his machine gun when he was killed by a shell burst. He was buried where he fell, on the bank on the side of the road, two miles SW of Bapaume. After the war his remains were exhumed and re-interred in the Warlencourt New British Cemetery, 2½ miles SW of Bapaume.
A war pension was granted to his mother.
- basd on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Staton Honour Board.
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