Charles Llewelyn THOMAS

Year of Birth:  1887

Place of Birth:  Thornborough, via Cairns, Qld

Date of Enlistment:  6 June 1917

Date and Place of Embarkation:  31 October 1917 Sydney

Ship:  HMAT Euripides A14

Rank:  Private

Unit(s):  15th Battalion

Regimental Number:  7788

Died:  4 July 1918

Charles Llewelyn Thomas pic
Northern Herald, Cairns 25 July 1918

Charles Llewelyn Thomas was born 14 July 1887 in the Thornborough district, via Cairns to John Morris Thomas and his wife Ann (nee Jones).  He was the fourth of eight children. Anne (b. 1881) came with her parents from Wales in 1883 on the “Rohilla”.  After the family’s arrival a further seven children were born – Jane (1884), Blodwen (1885) David (1889), Gwilyn (1892), Gwen (1895) and Arthur (1897).

Their husband and father John died of “miners phthisis” on 16 August 1907.

Charles Llewelyn Thomas enlisted in the A.I.F. on 6 June 1917.  He was 29 years 11 months of age, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 135 lbs.  He had a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair.  He was a Methodist.  His occupation was Printer and he had been employed at the Cairns Post newspaper for some years.  He named his mother, Annie Thomas, Charters Towers, as his next of kin.

Thomas item 1
Cairns Post 28 June 1917

He embarked on the HMAT Euripides from Sydney on 31 October 1917.

HMAT Euripides in Melbourne 11 Sep 1916
HMAT Euripides

He disembarked at Devonport, England on 26 December 1917 and marched in at Sutton Veny, Wiltshire that was one of many training camps in and around the Salisbury plain.  He shipped out to Calais France on 1 April 1918.

He was killed on 4th July 1918 and is buried in Crucifix Corner Cemetery, Villers Bretonneux, Somme, France.

Death Charles Llewelyn Thomas
Evening Telegraph, Charters Towers 17 July 1918

Online Resources

National Archives of Australia
NAA: B2455, Thomas C.L.

Australian War Memorial

National Library of Australia: Trove Digitised Newspapers

Queensland Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages

 

If you have a photograph or further information about this soldier you would like to share and add to his biography, please contact the Society at projects@cdfhs.org or leave a comment below. Thank you!

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