GORDON, Thomas Rantin
| Service Number: | 9469 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Trooper |
| Last Unit: | 1st Light Horse Regiment |
| Born: | Newry, County Down, Ireland, United Kingdom, 1891 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Mullaglass |
| Occupation: | Grocer |
| Died: | Illness, Egypt, 16 November 1917 |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 9469, 1st Light Horse Field Ambulance, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '22' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Malakuta embarkation_ship_number: A57 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 9469, 1st Light Horse Field Ambulance, HMAT Malakuta, Sydney | |
| 16 Nov 1917: | Involvement Trooper, 9469, 1st Light Horse Regiment, Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 9469 awm_unit: 1 Light Horse Regiment awm_rank: Trooper awm_died_date: 1917-11-16 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Elaine Bleakney
Thomas Rantin Gordon was born in 1891, the fourth child of 8 to farmers Hugh and Sara Jane Gordon. He grew up on the family farm at Searce outside Newry in Ireland. ( now Northern Ireland)
He would have helped on the farm, caring for the animals and harvesting the crops. He attended Mullaglass school and would have walked the miles there and back each day.
When he left school he went to train as an apprentice or “serve his time” in the grocery trade in Martin, Nesbitt & Co, grocer and seed merchants in Newry.
in 1912 he emigrated to Australia, where he had relatives. He took up employment at John Moran & Co, grocery, wine and seed merchants in High Street, Malvern.
He left employment there in July 1914 to join the Australian Royal Army Light Horse Medical Corps. In due course he was posted to Egypt, where he drove a horse ambulance. No doubt his experience with the horses on the family farm proved useful in this role.
in Summer 1916, he wrote to his mother to tell her that a girl from Newry called Lily Cunningham had agreed to marry him. They had been corresponding and planned to marry when he returned home after the war.
Sadly, Thomas would never return and while the Gordon family always stayed in touch in Lily, she never married.
Thomas was injured and unfortunately died on 16th November 1917 in Abbassia from Pulmonary Embolism caused by gunshot wounds to both legs and a compound fracture of his femur.
My grandfather was born just over a year later in February 1919 and he was given his uncle’s full name, Thomas Rantin Gordon, in his honour.
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