General News
23 November, 2024
Veterans' Voices: Thomas Leslie Davies
Thomas Leslie Davies was born at Pepper Plains, between Warracknabeal and Jeparit, in April 1896 to parents Samuel and Elizabeth Davies (née Patherick).
Thomas was educated at schools in Pepper Plains.
The family settled in Lameroo in the Murray Mallee of South Australia, just across the border, around 1906.
Samuel Davies died on September 6 1914 at Lameroo.
Thomas was 20 years old and a single farmer from Lameroo when he enlisted on November 6 1916 with the Australian Infantry Force and was allocated service number 4520.
His religion was listed as Methodist.
Thomas’s next of kin was his mother, Mrs Elizabeth Davies of Lameroo.
As Thomas was still a minor, his mother as his only surviving parent was required to give her consent for him to enlist in the AIF for active service abroad.
The consent was signed by Elizabeth on October 16 1916.
He was allocated to 12th Reinforcements of 32 Infantry Battalion.
Private Thomas Leslie Davies embarked from Outer Harbour, Adelaide, on HMAT Berrima (A35) on December 16 with 8th Infantry Brigade, 32nd Infantry Battalion, 12th Reinforcements, and disembarked at Devonport, England, on February 16 1917.
Reinforcements were given only basic training in Australia before joining training units in England.
Some of these units were located in the Salisbury Plain and surrounding areas in the county of Wiltshire.
Only two weeks after his arrival in England, Thomas was admitted to the military hospital at Fovant, Wiltshire, on March 2 1917.
Sadly, Private Thomas Leslie Davies of “D” Company, 8th Training Battalion, died at 5.10am on March 7 1917 at Military Hospital Fovant, Wiltshire, from pneumonia.
Thomas never saw combat service.
A death for Thomas Leslie Davies, aged 20, was registered in the March quarter of 1917 in the district of Wilton, Wiltshire.
Thomas was buried in the churchyard of Baverstock (St Edith) at Baverstock, Wiltshire, England, on March 9 1917.
He has a Commonwealth war grave headstone.
The inscription reads "In Loving Memory of our dear son, his loving parents Lameroo South Australia".
He is one of 29 Australian and three English soldiers to be buried there.
A war pension was granted to Thomas's widowed mother Elizabeth of £2 a fortnight from May 12 1917.
Thomas was entitled to only the British War Medal as he had not entered a theatre of war
A memorial scroll and a memory plaque were sent to Elizabeth in August 1922.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists Private Thomas Leslie Davies, service number 4520, as being 20 years old and having served with 32nd Battalion Australian Infantry.
Thomas is commemorated on Panel 120 in the Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
There is a memorial stone on the family grave in Lameroo Cemetery, Lameroo, and he is commemorated on the Adeliade National War Memorial and the Lameroo Memorial Window.
Thomas's brother, Alfred Stanely Davies also enlisted in the 32nd Battalion, with service number 3797, and served as a driver.
He returned to Australia in July 1919.
[CROSSHEA]Influenza
Most Australian troops who succumbed to disease during the war died from respiratory-tract infections – commonly influenza and pneumonia.
Combined, these claimed some 3300 Australian lives during the war, and many more servicemen were debilitated by the diseases and their effects long afterwards.
By 1930, almost 8000 ex soldiers were receiving disability pensions for asthma, bronchitis, pleurisy or pneumonia.
One particular respiratory-tract infection that probably presented the most serious threat to the Australian forces came very late in the war in the shape of the Spanish flu pandemic.
Among the AIF in France there were nearly 22,000 cases from the middle of 1918, and ultimately 1238 died.
Most occurred during the pandemic’s second and third waves between October 1918 and March 1919.
In early 1919 the first cases appeared at home in Australia.
Despite quarantine measures, this deadly influenza would ultimately infect about two million Australians and claim 12,000 to 15,000 lives.
The estimates worldwide range from 50 million to 100 million deaths, dwarfing wartime losses.
With thanks: Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.