Elder, Thomas Henry

29515 Gunner Thomas Henry Elder - 7th Australian Field Artillery Brigade

Thomas Henry Elder was born in Mullewa WA on 9th January 1894 to Thomas and Lucy Elder. He was one of four children, with John (1896), Samuel (1901) and William (1908).

After living his early life at Mullewa the family moved to the City taking up residence in North Perth. Tom would spend a bit of time in Fremantle as after leaving school he found employment with McIlwraith McEachearn as a Shipping Clerk.

During this time Tom had already served in the Cadets and was a member of the 25th Light Horse Regiment.

By the time he enlisted in March 1916, many of the shipping clerks at McIlwraith McEachearn in Fremantle had already enlisted in the war. Tom was accepted as fit for service, with the medical officer recording his details as;

Height - 5 feet & & 1/2 inches tall;

Weight - 123lbs;

Chest Measurement - 34 Inches, 

Complexion - Dark;

Eyes - Hazel;

Hair - Dark.

After a short time in the training camps in WA, Tom was assigned to a group for the Artillery. The main artillery training camp was in Victoria, so Tom and his group were sent to Melbourne. They then trained at Maribyrnong Camp. The next several months were spent in Victoria.

On the 2nd October 1916, Tom boarded the transport ship Aeneas in Port Melbourne and set sail for England, arriving at Plymouth on the 19th November 1916.

On the 11th January 1917, Tom was taken on strength of the 7th Field Artillery Brigade. 

Tom would serve with this unit in France and Belgium through 1917/18. He survived Messines and the Third Battle of Ypres unscathed. He wrote that at Ypres ;

The first morning we were there some shells were dropping near us while we were having breakfast. Right alongside of us the 26^th Battery were camped, and very suddenly one of the German shells landed right in the midst of the men of that battery and they suffered 42 casualties (11 dead & 31 wounded). We of the 27^th Battery realised how very fortunate we had been as that shell had just missed us.

Tom also witnessed the shooting down of the Red Baron in April 1918;

At our position we witnessed the bringing down of the Ace German aviator Baron von Richthofen. His plane crashed within a very short distance of our guns, and you can imagine the excitement when we learned that the dead German airman was the famous Baron von Richthofen who had brought down some 80 Allied planes. Several of my mates rushed over to the plane and broke off pieces of the fabric for souvenirs.

In August 1918, Tom took part in the great advance from Villers-Bretonneux that pushed the German back;

I shall never forget the morning of Thursday the 8^th of August. At the appointed hour very early that morning the guns of all the Australian artillery and those of our allies opened fire. The noise from all the artillery firing was deafening and went on for some considerable time. The sky all around was lit up with the flashes from the guns being fired.

Tom served with his unit till the Armistice;

On the morning of 11^th November 1918 word came through to our battery at lunch time that the German Army had applied for an armistice which had been granted. It was just on lunchtime when our commanding officer called on us to line up in our usual formation. He then read to us the official message regarding the German surrender – and there wasn’t even a cheer! Everybody was more interested in getting on with lunch. It was a day or two later that the fellows seemed to believe the war was over, and then some celebrations in various ways took place. Of course we all relaxed and took things leisurely.

Tom and his unit then moved to Belgium, a town called Lobbes which had been under German occupation for most of the war;

And what a tremendous welcome the people there gave us. They had been under German domination throughout the whole time of the war. My mate and I were billeted with a very kind family named Degand, consisting of Father and Mother, two grown up daughters and two sons who worked on their farm which was some distance away. They were wonderfully kind to Stan and me. I well remember the first night there when I was shown to my bedroom with such a lovely comfortable bed in which to sleep. Needless to say it was welcome after sleeping for years on the ground.

The Degand family had done special cooking to make up a parcel to send with me, and Mrs Degand handed me a 20 Franc gold coin as a keepsake memento. She said that they had succeeded in hiding some things from the Germans. As I left the Degand home the dear old lady was in tears.

Tom returned to England and waited for a troopship to bring him back home to WA. However while ships were returning to the east coast of Australia, it seems WA was being overlooked. Tom and a delegation of WA soldiers went to sort this out;

Those of us who were Western Australians were delayed in London because the ships that were leaving would not be calling at our home state. Some of us were very hostile about this. We heard that the Australian Governments Minister for Defence – Senator George Pearce (of WA) was in London, and so we made a stray approach to him about our being left behind. Very soon after that a ship was put on that would be calling at Fremantle. That ship was the SS Somali…

It was very hot passing through the Red Sea and we were glad to eventually arrive at Colombo on 24^th June where we stayed for a day or two and thus were able to see over that place. We were glad when we were at sea again, and after several more days were thrilled to be actually back in our own beloved Australia. We got an enormous welcome back there when the ship tied up in Fremantle. My brother and I very soon spotted our parents and two younger brothers among the huge crowd on the wharf. It was so good to be home again – back in Aussie!! We came back feeling more fortunate than ever that we lived in Australia – to us the best place in the World.

Upon his return home Tom Elder resumed working for McIlwraith McEachearn in Fremantle and was then appointed as Chief Clerk in the Perth Office.

In 1919 he married Florence Trevena in North Perth.

Tom worked for McIlwraith McEachearn till his retirement and also went to South Australia in the 1950's to work for the Company where he had the position of Manager.

Tom died in South Australia on the 20th July 1994 aged 100.

(Photo below Tom Elder standing on right and Fremantle mate Syl Williams from Edmund St Beaconsfield sitting on left)