The Eternal Flame

A Sample
Home Page The Men The Families The Cemeteries History Visit Gallipoli Contact Us Site Map The Project   THOMPSON, Astley John Onslow A.I.F.
Unit 4th Battalion Rank Lieutenant Colonel Service no. -
Date of Death 26 April 1915 Place of Death  

Age

 50
Cemetery 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery Details A. 11
Epitaph -
   
Next of Kin (Brother) THOMPSON Ivor William Onslow Singleton and Manilla, NSW
Parents Astley J and Udea THOMPSON  
Date of Birth 3 January 1865 Place of birth Wales, Glamorgan Source NAA (source 8)
           

General

Colonel Onslow Thompson and others who were with him, their line having gone and no instructions having been received, decided to return to the Australian lines.  They endeavoured to reach them, not by direct retirement, but by moving forward diagonally to their left.  As they did so, the Turks opened fire.  Onslow Thompson was killed.  Lieutenant Massie picked up his body and carried it towards the trenches, but the fire proved too severe.  The Colonel’s body remained in front of the line until it was found by the 3rd Battalion when digging a forward sap on May 11th.

The Official History of Australia in the war of 1914 – 1918.  The Story of Anzac.  Volume 1.  C. E. W. Bean.  University of Queensland Press, page 493. (source 1)

Mentioned in Despatches

Date of London Gazette - 5 August 1915, page 7668, position 5
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette - 28 October 1915, page 2736, position 34

Australian War Memorial (source 7)
   

Other Sources

  
Photo Anzac Memorial - 1917, page 252 (source 3)
Photo The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, 6 May 1915 (source 24)
Photo The Sydney Mail newspaper, 12 May 1915 (source 15)
Photo The Argus newspaper, 8 May 1915, page 20 (source 42)
Photo The Australasian newspaper, 15 May 1915, page vi (source 31)
Photo The Daily Telegraph newspaper, 6 May 1915, page 9 (source 70)
Photo The Sydney Mail newspaper, 12 May 1915, page 9 (source 15)
Newspaper article The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, 4 November 1915 (source 24)
Family details  
Headstone http://www.diggerhistory2.info (source 79)
Various Army Service papers, National Archives of Australia (source 8)
   

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