The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (676) Private Thomas Turnbull, 9th Battalion, AIF DOW 28 April 1915, 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 Michael Kelly, the story for this day was on (676) Private Thomas Turnbull, 9th Battalion, AIF DOW 28 April 1915, First World War.

676 Private Thomas Turnbull, 9th Battalion, AIF
DOW 28 April 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 11 December 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Turnbull.

Thomas Turnbull was born in 1893 in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, to William and Ellen Turnbull, the first of nine surviving children born to the couple. In the early 1900s they moved to Queensland, but by the end of the decade Thomas’s father had deserted his family.

When the First World War began the family were living in the Sunshine Coast region in a small town called Teutoberg, which had first been settled by German immigrant families around 1887 and named after the Teutoberg Forest in Germany. After the war the town changed its name to Witta owing to anti-German sentiment.

Thomas Turnbull was working as a sailor, and he enlisted at Enoggera on 25 August 1914, joining the newly raised 9th Battalion. After his initial training he embarked in September aboard the transport ship Omrah, bound for Egypt.

On arrival the men assisted in setting up Mena Camp and continued their training in the desert, seeing much of Cairo and surrounds during their leave. In early March the 3rd Brigade, which included the 9th Battalion, was sent to Lemnos in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign.

Turnbull was amongst the first wave of men ashore on Gallipoli in the pre–dawn hours of 25 April, and was wounded during the fighting. He was taken to the transport ship Seang Choon for transport to Egypt, but his wounds proved fatal and he died during the voyage on 28 April. He was 22 years old.

Turnbull was buried at sea and his name was added to the Lone Pine Memorial after the war, among the thousands of others with no known graves.

Three of Turnbull’s brothers also served in the First World War: Joseph and William with the 9th Battalion, and John, who enlisted underage, with the 11th Machine Gun Company. Joseph was killed in France during a raid on 2 July 1916, but William and John both returned to Australia.

Thomas Turnbull’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Thomas Turnbull, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section