The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (581) Private Thomas O’Leary, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Charis May, the story for this day was on (581) Private Thomas O’Leary, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

581 Private Thomas O’Leary, 7th Battalion, AIF
DOW 25 April 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 17 November 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas O’Leary.

Thomas O’Leary was the fifth son of Thomas O’Leary and his second wife Mary Ann. He was born in Redesdale Junction near Kyneton in Victoria. His father had emigrated from Ireland nearly three decades before and since then had worked as a farmer in the Kyneton district. Thomas attended the Kyneton Catholic Boys’ School and went on to take a number of jobs around Victoria. He was known as a “high spirited young fellow”, well suited to travel. By 1914 he had settled in Bacchus Marsh near his brother Patrick, and worked with him at the nearby Water Commission. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force within weeks of the outbreak of the First World War, and left Australia with the first contingent in late 1914.

Early in 1915 Thomas learned that his cousin Michael O’Leary, still in Ireland, had won the Victoria Cross fighting on the Western Front. Thomas had been posted to the 7th Battalion, which underwent a further period of training in Egypt before being sent to Gallipoli in 1915. At 4.45 on the morning of 25 April the 7th Battalion arrived off the coast of the Gallipoli peninsula. The tows that had been designated to take them ashore had not turned up, and so the men used the ship’s lifeboats to get ashore.

Private Thomas O’Leary was shot before he could leave his boat. His friend Charles Lyle, watching from the ship, wrote, “we saw the lot … I never wish to see anything like that landing at Dardanelles again”. Thomas had been shot in the chest and was taken to a hospital ship for immediate treatment. He died shortly afterwards, and was buried at sea. He was 22 years old.

Thomas’ brother James had also enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and was on his way to fight overseas when Thomas was killed. James spent four months at Gallipoli, and told his parents he did not mind leaving it at all. He survived the war, but returned home with a serious cough that meant he had trouble sleeping and other problems. He needed constant care until his death in 1961.

The name of Thomas O’Leary is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Thomas O’Leary, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section