….. went over the top and was presumed killed            Thomas Bishop, a farmer, had lived all his life in East Gippsland, and was well known locally in Bairnsdale and Paynesville. He was one of five children born to Thomas and Martha (nee Wyndham) who had also lived all their lives here. He had done two years in the Citizen Forces, 48 th   Infantry, when like many others he enlisted in July 1915 and found himself in Egypt with the 59 th  Battalion. He spent almost three months in hospital and convalescing from gastritis before he sailed to Marseilles. On 19 July with so many others he went over the top and was presumed killed in action and buried in no man’s land. Several years later his family were advised that his body had been retrieved and he was buried in Augers Ridge Cemetery. Eventually his father was granted a pension of 17/6 per fortnight from his son’s death.

Images courtesy of the East Gippsland Historical Society Inc.

3691 Private Thomas Charles Bishop – Bairnsdale Killed in Action 19 July 1916