Gilgandra, NSW
4902
13th Battalion, 15th Reinforcement
Gilgandra Coo-ee
Returned to Australia, July 1917
Private Thomas Henry Turvey MM 4902A
Private Turvey was a 23 year old labourer of Gilgandra when he enlisted on 7 November at Lawson in the Blue Mountains and marched to Sydney with the Coo-ee March. Dr Peet examined him in Gilgandra on 4 October 1915 and described him as 5’8” tall, 10st 10lb (68kgs), with dark complexion, light blue eyes and dark hair. He had good teeth, a scar under his left lower jaw and a faint oval scar front right shin bone. His religion was Roman Catholic and was single. Thomas was born in Gulgong to Thomas Isaac and Mary Turvey in 1892. His father, Thomas Isaac Turvey was his next of kin and lived in Gilgandra at the time.
Thomas trained at Liverpool with the 13th Battalion and sailed for Egypt on the ‘Star of England’ on March 8 1916. After further training in Egypt he went to England then to France with the 45th Battalion. The letter A was allotted to his service number because there was a duplicate number in his section. He arrived in July 1916 and he saw his first action at Pozieres in August 1916.
Thomas earned the Military Medal on the night of22 & 23 February 1917 and it was awarded to him on 21 August 1917 for ‘his gallant conduct and devotion to duty during an attack on an enemy trench near GUEDECOURT on the night of 22nd/23rd February 1917 when, as a runner he maintained communication overland under artillery and machine gun fire between the front line and Headquarters. His work in this respect was quite consistent with his previous fine record established for coolness and determination in the face of all obstacles’.
Thomas was wounded at Messines on 7 June 1917, suffering a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was sent to England on the Hospital Ship, St Patrick for treatment and convalescence. In July 1917 he returned to Australia on the “Demosthenes’. Thomas was discharged on 1 November 1917. He received the Military Medal, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is commemorated on the Coo-ee Memorial Gateway, the Gilgandra Honor Roll and the Virtual War Memorial.
He married Priscilla in 1918 in Sydney and had at least one child, Gloria Turvey born 1919. Thomas died 6 October 1965. Thomas and Priscilla are buried in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Matraville.
