Ford Thomas Henry
Thomas FORD was born in Katanning, Western Australia to Thomas Henry Ford and Mary (Alma Eigel) Yeelcan in 1894. He was working as a labourer in Millmerran, where he resided with this wife Elizabeth (nee Hagan), and son also Thomas Henry, ten months old when he enlisted in October 1916. Like many young patriotic Australian men, at the outbreak of World War One he enlisted with the First AIF and served overseas.
Private Ford volunteered to serve with the First AIF at Toowomba and trained at the Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera with the 12th Reinforcements for the 31st Infantry Battalion, before embarking for overseas in December 1916.
Thomas Henry Ford – WW1
ROLL OF HONOUR
Arriving in England he was admitted to the military hospital at Parkhouse having contracted mumps. He was discharged two weeks later and joined his unit at the Training Battalion where they spent several months returning to strength and preparing to take their turn in the front line.
Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera
On the eve of 26-27 September, Private Ford was hit by a high explosive shell, and was buried where he fell. His comrades placed a simple cross on his grave, but by the end of the war, many of these temporary graves were obliterated.
In August 1917, Thomas Ford joined the 31st Battalion at Racquinhem, in northern France, by September 1917 they were engaged in major operations in the vicinity of Polygon Wood, and it was here that Privates Ford was killed in action.
Private Thomas Ford’s service in the First World War is commemorated at the Ypres (Mennin Gate) Memorial, which stands as a reminder of those who died, who have no known grave.
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