Thomas Henry MINES
Year of Birth: 1887
Place of Birth: Frome, Somerset, England
Date of Enlistment: 20 March 1916
Date and Place of Embarkation: 27 October 1916 at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Ship: HMAT Marathon
Rank: Private
Unit(s): 49th Battalion Australian Infantry Force
Regimental Number: 2948
Died: 7 June 1917
Thomas Henry Mines was born in 1897 in Frome, Somerset, England to William and Mary Mines. He was the only one of their seven children to come to Australia, arriving on the ship Commonwealth in Sydney on 20 March 1911. The 1913 Electoral rolls reveal him working near Echuca, Victoria as a labourer.
In the passenger list of the Wyandra published in the Cairns Post 27 February 1914 he is listed as arriving in Cairns from Melbourne. The 1915, 1916 and 1917 electoral rolls record him as a miner, living in Mareeba.
He joined the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force on 8 February 1914 when war broke out and embarked on the TSS Kanowna from Cairns with the Kennedy Regiment.
The ship returned to Townsville on 18 September due to trouble caused by stokers on the troopship. He was discharged that day having served 44 days. He rejoined the 2nd N. & M.E.F on 14 August 1914 and served as a Lance Corporal while with the Matupi Battery in Rabaul. He was discharged o 31 January 1916 and returned to North Queensland.
He then joined the A.I.F. in Cairns on 26 March 1916. He was appointed to the 49th Battalion as a Private. He was 29 years old, 5 feet7 inches tall, weighed 154 pounds with a dark complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. His religion was Church of England. He named his mother as his next of kin.
He arrived at Enoggera training camp 3 May 1916. He was granted Home Leave on 5 September to return to Chillagoe to make arrangements in connection with some mining property he owned.
He returned from leave on 24 September and embarked on the HMAT Marathon from Brisbane on 27 October 1916.
The ship arrived in Plymouth, England on 9 January 1917 and after training with 13th Training Battalion at Codford Wiltshire, only a short distance from his home town.
He was sent to Etaples, France to join the 49th Battalion on 13 May 1917 and was killed in action on 7 June 1917.
He is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium.
Online Resources
NAA: B2455 (MINES T H) National Archives of Australia
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
National Library of Australia: Trove Digitised Newspapers
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre
Queensland Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages
Ancestry.com.au: Queensland Electoral Rolls
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