Braidwood Anzac Tom Sharpe of “Mt Ash” received a Military Medal for gallantry in France 1918.
On January 28 1916, aged twenty, Thomas Sharpe and his brother Charlie joined a number of other young men from the Braidwood district to enlist in the army.
Most of the volunteers from southern NSW joined A Company, 55th Battalion. Numbered amongst these was John Ryan of Tumut.
The 55th was raised in Egypt in February 1916 as part of the doubling of the AIF. Half its recruits were Gallipoli veterans, and the other half was fresh reinforcements from NSW. The battalion became part of the 14th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division.
Tom Sharpe sailed out of Sydney on the “Ceramic” in October 1916, and landed in Plymouth at the end of November. A month later he sailed from Folkestone for the battlefields of France.
Tom’s service record in the Australian War Memorial notes that on March 1, 1917, he was wounded in action. He left Le Havre at the end of the month for the War Hospital at Reading, England, where he spent the next nine months recovering from the affects of mustard gas.
In January, 1918, he rejoined his unit in France, only to succumb to gas attack again in March. He recovered in France, but was again more seriously gassed at the end of April. He spent the next five months in hospital in England but returned to his unit on September 19, 1918 to be part of the great Hindenburg Line action.
The weather on September 29 and 30 was desperately wet and cold. The trenches ran with water. Tom Sharpe was part of the stretcher-bearers party.
Since leaving home in October 1916, he had spent more than 15 months in hospital. He made up for his lack of action all on one day, in a muddy battlefield near the village of Bellicourt on 30 September, 1918.
Tom Sharpe’s Military Medal citation reads: “When Pte Sharpe’s company went forward to attack an enemy strong position which was holding up the advance, the attacking troops came under very heavy M. G. and rifle fire. Considerably reduced by casualties the Company was compelled to withdraw about 100 yards. Amongst the wounded left out in front was this soldier’s Company Commander who had received serious wounds in the legs. Pte Sharpe, jumping out of a trench, went to the assistance of the unfortunate officer, moving forward under a hail of bullets. After carefully dressing the wounds, he carried the officer back to our lines. But for this stretcher bearer’s prompt and gallant action the officer may have fallen into enemy hands.”
On the same day, in the same action, Pte John Ryan of Tumut received a Victoria Cross for gallantry on the field of battle.
The National Archives holds the original of the telegram sent to Tom’s parents in Braidwood notifying them of their son’s award.
In the coming months William and Eliza Sharpe of the “Mt Ash”, Braidwood, would receive many more “next of kin” telegrams as Tom’s health deteriorated due to pneumonia, pleurisy and finally tuberculosis.
It was not until June 1919 that they were at last told that “Pte Sharpe removed from dangerously ill list.”
Tom and Charlie Sharpe both returned home to Braidwood, though Tom’s health soon deteriorated and he was hospitalized in Sydney.
The tall, quietly spoken country boy, son of Will Sharpe and grandson of William Bunn, died of the long term affects of gassing on October 3, 1924.
He is buried in Braidwood Cemetery in a soldier’s grave which records his service but not his Award, though his Military Medal is noted on the local Cenotaph.
(Thanks for information for this article to Catherine King, Bruce Keeley, and David Gist (AWM))
Email a friend