Service number | 3470 |
---|---|
Ranks Held | Corporal, Private |
Birth Date | 1878 |
Birth Place | United Kingdom: England, Merseyside, Liverpool |
Death Date | 1918-06-08 |
Death Place | France |
Final Rank | Corporal |
Service | Australian Imperial Force |
Units |
|
Places | |
Conflict/Operation | First World War, 1914-1918 |
Corporal Arthur G Thomas
Arthur Thomas was born in 1878 at Liverpool, England. He was working as the manager of a tailoring establishment and living at Toorak when he enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in Melbourne on 8 July 1915. The 37-year-old was allotted the service number 3470 and the rank of private and assigned to the 6th Infantry Battalion. After several months of training Thomas embarked from Melbourne on 11 October 1915 aboard the troopship HMAT Nestor.
After arriving in Egypt, Thomas officially joined the battalion from reinforcements in February 1916. He was promoted to the rank of lance corporal in March and was then sent to the Western Front in France. For the remainder of 1916 the battalion was heavily involved in operations against the German Army, fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm and spending winter on the Somme. In February 1917, Thomas was promoted to the rank of corporal and in May of that year was sent to England as a training instructor with the 2nd Training Battalion. He returned to the battalion in early January 1918. In March and April 1918 the battalion helped stop the German spring offensive.
In one of his last diary entries he wrote that it was "very nerve racking to be constantly under shell fire and horrors and dirt and filth, I am sick and tired of the blasted show, it is cruel." A few days later on 8 June 1918, the 40 year old Thomas was killed in action by an artillery shell near Strazeele in France. Arthur Thomas is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.
Rolls
-
Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Files:
- Unit
- 6th Australian Infantry Battalion
- Conflict
- First World War, 1914-1918
- Rank
- Corporal
-
First World War Embarkation Roll:
- Conflict
- First World War, 1914-1918
- Rank
- Private
-
First World War Nominal Roll:
- Unit
- 6th Australian Infantry Battalion
- Conflict
- First World War, 1914-1918
- Rank
- Corporal
-
Roll of Honour:
- Unit
- 6th Australian Infantry Battalion
- Conflict
- First World War, 1914-1918
- Rank
- Corporal
Timeline
Date of birth | 1878 | |
---|---|---|
Date of enlistment | 08 July 1915 | |
Date of embarkation | 11 October 1915 | |
Date of death | 08 June 1918 | |
Date of fate | 08 June 1918 |
Related information
Conflicts
Subjects
Objects
Related Objects
- Thomas, Arthur G (Corporal, 6th Bn d.1918)
- Locre, Belgium. 21 February 1918. Group portrait of the NCOs of the 6th Battalion. Left to right, ...
- Locre, Belgium. 21 February 1918. Group portrait of the NCOs of the 6th Battalion. Left to right, ...
- The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3470) Corporal Arthur G. Thomas, 6th Battalion (Infantry), First World War
- Transcript of letters from Arthur Thomas to his family, 1915-1918
- Transcript of letters from Arthur Thomas to his family, 1915-1918
- Diary of Arthur Thomas, 1916-1918
- Diary of Arthur Thomas, 1916-1918
- Transcript of diaries of Arthur Thomas, 1916-1918
- Transcript of diaries of Arthur Thomas, 1916-1918