866 Private Thomas Enoch Haylock – Paynesville Killed in Action 12 October 1915

….. torpedoed not far from Mudros

Thomas Haylock was a 30 year old labourer when he and his brother Fred enlisted on 25 January 1915. Thomas with D company with the 21 st  Battalion and Fred with the 22 nd  Battalion. Their parents were Daniel and Elizabeth Haylock and they lived on Raymond Island with their ten brothers and sisters. Early in 1915, before he sailed, Thomas married Elsie Maude Haylock, the daughter of his uncle Thomas Enoch Haylock after whom he had been named. On 10 May 1915, Thomas and Fred both sailed for Egypt on the Ulysses  where they underwent further training. On 30 August Thomas sailed for Lemnos on the Southland when it was torpedoed not far from Mudros and the ship was stricken. Fourteen men drowned with Thomas making it to Mudros where they stayed for about a week before making their way across the Dardanelles to the peninsula and joining the rest of the 21 st  Battalion. Thomas was not involved in any of the major battles while at Gallipoli, but was killed in action on 12 October and buried at Shrapnel Gully the same day. He didn’t have the typically written will at the time of his enlistment but rather may have had some portent of what the future held for him. Before he left Australian shores he drew up a will for his property and estate, considerable at that time, to be left to his new wife Elsie. It was not until 1924 that Elsie remarried to Harold Baptie. Thomas’ brother Fred returned home in 1918 and the Haylock name continues in the district.

The grave of Thomas Haylock (circled) at Shrapnel Gully, Gallipoli Peninsula. AWM CO3165