We remember our Anzac heroes - Part III

We continue a series of stories remembering our country’s Anzac heroes as Albany counts down to the 2014 centenary commemoration of the departure of convoys from King George Sound.

Victorian soldier Sergeant James Thomas Magee was among the thousands of young men who left for war in 1914 with the first convoy of troopships from Albany.

The shoreline would be the last view of Australia he would see.

Tom served with the ammunition column of the First Field Artillery Brigade.

He was almost 26 when he enlisted at St Kilda in August 1914, embarking at Melbourne on HMAT Shropshire A9 on October 20.

Three other transports of the first convoy — HMAT Karroo A10, HMAT Armadale A26 and HMAT Miltiades A28 — sailed from Melbourne that day.

On reaching Albany five days later, Tom comments in a letter to his mother, “This is a very big boat. There are over 1300 soldiers, 250 sailors and 480 horses on board”.

He adds “We can’t get stamps here so have to post without any”.

Born at Woodstock-On-Loddon near Bendigo, Tom’s family had emigrated from Ireland, bound for the goldfields in Victoria.

Prior to the war, Tom is understood to have worked for the large agricultural machinery manufacturers Sunshine Harvester Works, a company significant for the role it played in the progression of Australian industrial and workplace relations and the establishment of a basic wage.

Over the course of the war, it is the letters Tom writes to his mother Mary which give a personal and heartbreakingly frank account of the emotions he experiences.

Leaving the army training camp at Broadmeadows he comments, “It is a great sight for anyone to see, there is a great city of tents and bands playing at night time”.

But his sense of anticipation is tempered by the raw emotion of bidding farewell, where at St Kilda he “said goodbye to them, they all broke up and the old lady especially howled” and “on the station platform, eight girls I know started howling and going on and made me look like a fool, to say nothing of being down in the dumps ever since”.

To his mother are comforting words: “I am very sorry that you are taking it so hard … a person has only to die once … there is no use me trying to get out of it as you suggested”.

Through his letters we share this young soldier’s enthusiasm, empathise with his sorrow and can only imagine the horrendous realities of the battlefield and engagements with the enemy.

The carnage of the Emden, the relentless demands of Gallipoli and the deafness from exploding shells are experiences laid bare.

The buoyant mood of his early correspondence flattens through the course of the war, reflecting his utter exhaustion and deteriorating health.

Debilitated by illness, Tom was evacuated from France early in October 1918 in preparation for a return home.

Physically weakened by exposure to gas, Tom contracted a chill while crossing the English Channel.

Gripped by the effects of influenza and pneumonia he tragically passed away in a British hospital on October 25, 1918.

He is buried in Efford Cemetery, Plymouth.

Tom had served in the Australian Imperial Force with distinction.

He was awarded the Military Medal for displaying “great courage and coolness” when containing a fire from an exploding shell in Westhoek, France. Exposing himself to burns, his actions with two others enabled a way out for the many soldiers trapped in their dugouts.

Tom’s words of consolation remain indelibly poignant, “So goodbye now dear mother, for the present and don’t let it worry you. Think that there are hundreds of other mothers just in the same position as you”.

Albany woman Pam Lumsden, 76, is Tom’s niece and although she never knew her uncle, she has read his letters to home firsthand.

“My father Leo Magee was one of Tom’s younger brothers and (was) 12 years old when Tom went away to war,” she said.

“I never knew Tom but about 20 years ago I read the original letters when I visited some cousins in Bendigo … there were about 100 of them in an old box ladies used to keep their stockings in back then.”

Mrs Lumsden said it was a fascinating and moving experience to read her deceased uncle’s wartime experiences.

“It was a revelation … the whole war was laid out from a personal point of view from a man who could write quite well,” she said.

“He wrote letters all throughout the war from Gallipoli, which were written in purple indelible pencil because they ran out of ink.

“I had them copied and put onto floppy discs because they are precious things.

“I read them on the train back from Bendigo to Melbourne and I have to admit they made me cry.”

If you have an Anzac in your family, contact Sue Smith as Albany History Collection on 9841 9327.