Private/Acting Staff Sergeant 17350 Thomas Edward Walsh

[Connor]

Hi there,

I'm currently researching the soldier Private 17350 Thomas Edward Walsh 18th Hussar's. 

Private TE Walsh is my 2x Great Grandfather, I live in Australia, so it makes things a little harder to know where to look and as I am a financially unable to subscribe to research services at the moment it makes things a little harder.

His Date of Birth is estimated to be 1881/82 in Lancashire or Yorkshire Counties England. He later moved Sheffield where he started to raise his family before they moved to Queensland Australia.

Private TE Walsh also served in the Boer War under the same name. His unit and service number are 5209 and the Second Dragoon Guards. He did five tours of South Africa with the five clasps on his Queen's South Africa medals stating, "South Africa 1902, South Africa 1901, Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Cape Colony".

For his service during the Boer war, he was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal and five claps. For his service in the First World War, he was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. He was also awarded the "War Badge" no. 172039. I do not have the War Badge; it has been lost to the sands or time. At the date of his Discharge on the 23rd of August 1916 he was an Acting Staff Sergeant with the 11th Reserve Cavalry Regiment.

I do have copies of his MOD Medal Rolls Index Card from WW1 and his pension record given on the date of discharge; his Short Service (Cavalry of the Line) Records (1900) and his military history sheet (1908) through other lines of research and assistance from others.

He moved to Sheffield, Yorkshire sometime before the war and raised the start of his family there until he moved to Queensland Australia sometime during the Great Depression. When he died in the Northern Desert Mining town Mt. Isa Queensland Australia his family moved to the coast to an island off the Townsville coast, Magnetic Island. His only surviving daughter Jean is 92 and I don't have contact with her. I have contact with his last Granddaughter as she is my Great Aunt, and she is very keen on knowing more about her grandfather as she has no one to ask now as they have all pass on.

I was wandering if there may be anything else out there on this soldier either from the Boer War or the First World War or on his life in General? Your Help on this matter would be very much appreciated. I will pass any information on to his granddaughter (my great aunt). 

[George Rayner]

Welcome to the forum Connor and good luck with the research.

Do you have this form?

There is a family tree for him on Ancestry-is this him?

• 1881(AGE)

  Select fact

  Birth

  abt 1881 • Sheffield, Yorkshire, England

  3 Sources

• 190928

  Select fact

  Marriage

  25 Dec 1909 • Darnall

   

  Alice Smith

  (1890–)

  1 Source

• 191029

  Birth of son Thomas Henry Walsh(1910–1988)

  ? 6 Oct 1910 • Sheffield Yorkshire, England

• 191130

  Select fact

  Residence

  02 Apr 1911 • Sheffield, Yorkshire-West Riding, England

  Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head

  1 Source

• 191231

  Birth of child Davis Walsh(1912–)

  6 Aug 1912 • Sheffield

• 191433

  Select fact

  Residence

  1914

  Other Records: Self

  1 Source

• 192241

  Select fact

  Arrival

  1922 • Queensland, Australia

  1 Source

• 1988107

  Death of son Thomas Henry Walsh(1910–1988)

  12 Dec 1988 • Townsville, Queensland, Australia

 

 

[Mark1959]

He enlisted in the Yorkshire Artillery Militia in March 1900 as 3385 before moving to the cavalry a few months later as a 7 and 5 regular. The addresses and father are the same. 
He married Alice Smith in Darnell Parish Church on Xmas day 1909. By which time his father was deceased. FMP have a copy of the marriage entry. He is described as an engine cleaner. FMP also have records of his 1916 medical boards. Discharged due to chronic nephritis. 
He is incredibly well documented for a WW1 soldier.

[Mark1959]

He enlisted in the Yorkshire Artillery Militia in March 1900 as 3385 before moving to the cavalry a few months later as a 7 and 5 regular. The addresses and father are the same. 
He married Alice Smith in Darnell Parish Church on Xmas day 1909. By which time his father was deceased. FMP have a copy of the marriage entry. He is described as an engine cleaner. FMP also have records of his 1916 medical boards. Discharged due to chronic nephritis. 
He is incredibly well documented for a WW1 soldier.

edit

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2997/images/40610_B000983-00070?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=04d99d2ee9814e262f9dc9d8c0623577&usePUB=true&_phsrc=tPB5&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.199042795.534547828.1638600418-548247106.1638045370&pId=38331032

provide the link to service papers etc. children names correct etc. so family embarked on the Diogenes on 16/8/22 bound for Brisbane from London.

[Jogs]

Thomas Edward Walsh was my paternal Great Grandfather. His last surviving child, his youngest daughter JOAN (not Jean) Geary (nee Walsh) was my grandmother, her eldest son Desmond Robert Geary is my Father. Joan was born in Mt Isa in 1930 to Thomas and Alice and she sadly passed away this year, aged 93 in Cairns.

Grandma told us about the terrible loss of her Dad in an accidental explosion on 9 December 1939 at the Mt Isa mines and how her Mum Alice, now widowed, purchased a pineapple plantation on Magnetic Island using education money put aside for the kids, moving the rest of the family to Magnetic Island when my Gran Joan was about 11. 

Great Grandad Walsh is buried at Mt Isa cemetery in an unmarked grave other than some perimeter stones and simple cross my family marked it with decades ago but I am not sure what remains of that now. Alice is buried in Belgian Gardens Cemetery, Townsville.

Here is what I know of the "kids" of Thomas Edward Nall and Alice Walsh.

Thomas married Mary and they lived their whole lives on Magnetic Island and their ashes are interred on the Island. Uncle Tom worked for Qantas as an engineer and fixed military aircraft at Garbutt airbase during the war. They had 4 kids, Kate, Bernice, Jim and Marion. Kate still lives in Townsville and Marion still lives on Magnetic Island. She still owns Tom and Mary’s original house on the island! These ladies are both living granddaughters of Thomas Walsh.

Bill married and they had one daughter but apologies, both the wife and daughter’s names escape us as they had little contact with others in the family. Bill made prosthetic limbs and they lived in Brisbane. I believe Bill served in the Australian Army in PNG.

Doris was married to Joe McGill and their children were Alan, Marlene, Anne, Graham and Kenneth. They lived in Brisbane and retired on the Gold Coast before their passing.  

Jack married Rita, they had no children.  They lived on Magnetic Island and their ashes are interred there.  Jack also served in PNG. After the war he worked at the Arcadia pub on the island.  

Mabel went by the name Maime to her family, she married George Burns. They lived in Sydney and Byron Bay for a long time, eventually moving to Brisbane and had one child Billy Burns.

Florence's first marriage was a to a man with the surname Barrett, however I cannot remember his first name. That marriage produced sons Ned, Thomas and daughter Lola.  It was Ned who received our great grandfather Thomas's war medals, and when Ned passed away they were given to his son Noel who is living in Townsville. Florence remarried to Ron Edwards and had a daughter Linda who also still lives in Townsville.

Their youngest child Joan married Keith Geary in 1949 and had 3 children, Desmond, Warren and Michelle. Des and Warren live in Cairns, Queensland and Michelle lives in Nelson, New Zealand.

I am not sure who your Great Aunt is, but as you can see there are many living grandchildren of Thomas and Alice Walsh, my Dad being one of them, and there are hundreds of us great grand children and so on so she is not alone if she wishes to reach out.

Here is an article from the Townsville Bulletin regarding the inquest into his death if you have not already seen it.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62418570#

I know you are specifically looking for his military information, if I come across any I will share it. 

Regards

Joanne Geary

Great grand daughter of Thomas Edward Nall Walsh

 

 

[Michelle Young]

Welcome to the forum. @Connor made just three posts in 2021 and hasn’t returned to the forum.

My tag may alert them.

Duplicated post on Thomas Edward Walsh here

 

[Conor]

Hey Michelle I think you've tagged the wrong Conor.

Kind regards

[Michelle Young]

Apologies, I will try again. Caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet……