Skeyhill, Thomas John (Signaller, b.1895 - d.1932)

Collection consists of a bound, printed and annotated published booklet of poems titled 'Poems from the Peninsula' by 1182 Signaller Tom Skeyhill, 8th Infantry Battalion, who wrote the poems about his service at Gallipoli while he was a patient at No.1 Australian General Hospital in Egypt, 1915. The annotation, dated October 1915, is by "H.G.W", who was a fellow patient of Skeyhill at the Hospital in Egypt.

Thomas John Skeyhill enlisted in the 8th Battalion, AIF, in August 1914, embarked from Melbourne in December and landed at Anzac Cove as a signaller on 25 April 1915. On 8 May, during the advance at Cape Helles, he was blinded by an exploding Turkish shell. He was invalided back to Melbourne in October.

Skeyhill had been composing verse, some of which was published in the London, Cairo and Melbourne press. In November 1915 he appeared at the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne, in full Gallipoli kit, reciting his compositions. His Soldier Songs from Anzac, published in December, sold 20,000 copies in four months. For two years Signaller Skeyhill, 'the blind soldier poet', toured Australia, lecturing and reciting, raising funds for the Red Cross Society and appearing on recruiting platforms. He was discharged on 28 September 1916.

After touring North America in 1917, Skeyhill's sight was restored after receiving osteopathic treatment in Washington in 1918.