Sapper John Thomas Perry

SAPPER JOHN THOMAS PERRY 237 – 1st Tunnelling Company

John Thomas Perry was born in Jersey, Channel Islands about 1866. He came to Australia and in 1908 was working as a labourer at Yarwin, Queensland and a timber getter at Littlemore, in the Capricornia region in 1913.

Two years later at the Rockhampton Recruiting Depot the forty-eight year old miner enlisted for active service abroad and passed the medical examination on November 24, 1915. Attestation papers reveal he was 167cms (5ft 5 ½ins) tall and weighed 70kgs (154lbs) with a chest measurement of 102cms (40ins). Fair was his complexion with brown eyes and grey hair. His faith was Church of England. Next-of-kin was his sister Miss Clara Perry of 24 Eaton Place, St Heliers, Jersey. He was sworn in the same day.

Acknowledgement to the volunteers was published in The Capricornian on November 27, 1915:

CENTRAL DISTRICT VOLUNTEERS SEVENTEEN MORE LEAVE Seventeen more recruits accepted for service in the Australian expeditionary force left for Brisbane on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Their names are: T.J. Costello, J. Tretheway, L.L. Mattingley, W. Hixon, Rockhampton; W.R. Lawes, Tambo; J.J. Holman, Emerald; W.E. Matthews, M. McPhee, H.S. Peit, J. O’Sullivan, Archie L. Black, A.E. Steel, T. Cross, H.A. Swann, Mackay; E.A. [unreadable] Gladstone; J. McBratney, Mount Morgan (miners’ corps) J.T. Perry, Many Peaks (miners’ corps).

The Mining Corps was in its establishment phase and his basic training took place at Casula camp, near Liverpool, NSW. He was assigned to the No. 1 Company of the Mining Corps in the rank of Sapper with the regimental number 237.

At a civic parade in the Domain, Sydney on Saturday February 19, 1916, a large crowd of relations and friends of the departing Miners lined the four sides of the parade ground. Sixty police and 100 Garrison Military Police were on hand to keep the crowds within bounds. The scene was an inspiriting one. On the extreme right flank, facing the saluting base, were companies of the Rifle Club School; next came a detachment of the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, then the bands of the Light Horse, Liverpool Depot, and the Miners’ on the left, rank upon rank, the Miners’ Battalion.

The Corps boarded HMAT A38 Ulysses in Sydney, NSW on February 20 and sailed for the European theatre. Arriving in Melbourne, Victoria on February 22 the Miners camped at Broadmeadows for a stay of 7 days while further cargo was loaded.

Another parade was held at the Broadmeadows camp on March 1, the Miners’ Corps being inspected by the Governor-General, as Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth military forces.

Leaving Melbourne on March 1, Ulysses arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia on March 7 where a further 53 members were taken on board.

On Wednesday March 8, 1916 the whole force, with their band and equipment, paraded at Fremantle prior to leaving Victoria Quay at 9.30 o’clock.

The ship hit a reef when leaving Fremantle harbour, stripping the plates for 40 feet and, although there was a gap in the outside plate, the inner bilge plates were not punctured. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’. The Miners were off-loaded and sent to the Blackboy Hill Camp where further training was conducted. The Mining Corps comprised 1303 members at the time they embarked with a Headquarters of 40; No.1 Company – 390; No.2 Company – 380; No.3 Company – 392, and 101 members of the 1st Reinforcements.

Finally departing Fremantle on April 1, Ulysses voyaged via Suez, Port Said and Alexandria in Egypt. The Captain of the ship was reluctant to take Ulysses out of the Suez Canal because he felt the weight of the ship made it impossible to manoeuvre in the situation of a submarine attack. The troops were transhipped to HM Transport B.1 Ansonia, then on to Valetta, Malta before disembarking at Marseilles, France on May 5, 1916. As a unit they entrained at Marseilles on May 7 and detrained on May 11 at Hazebrouck.

A ‘Mining Corps’ did not fit in the British Expeditionary Force, and the Corps was disbanded and three Australian Tunnelling Companies were formed. The Technical Staff of the Corps Headquarters, plus some technically qualified men from the individual companies, was formed into the entirely new Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company (AEMMBC), better known as the ‘Alphabetical Company’.

On May 22, 1916 Sapper Perry was sent to the 6th Field Ambulance then to the Divisional Rest Station with Diarrhoea and was discharged from La Nouvelle, Ferne, L’Estrade to return to duty three days later.

He was transferred to the 1st Tunnelling Company on December 24, 1916.

He left the field on January 13, 1917 sick and three days later was sent to the 47th D.R.S. but the next day went to the N.M. Casualty Clearing Station diagnosed with anaemia and was sent for treatment on January 20 at the 2nd Aust General Hospital.

On January 25, 1917 he was invalided to England from Boulogne on the hospital ship H.S. Brighton and admitted to the 3rd Aust. General Hospital at Brighton suffering from anaemia. On February 27 he was transferred to the 1st Aust Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield with debility and on March 9, 1917 released on Furlough and report to the No. 2 Command Depot at Weymouth on March 24, 1917.

He marched out of Weymouth on April 27, 1917 to prepare for his return to Australia for a change due to debility and senile decay.

He was invalided home to Australia on May 4, 1917 from Devonport, Eng on board the H.T. Themistocles. The vessel reached Sydney, NSW (2nd Military District) on July 7, 1917 and he returned to Brisbane, Qld (1st M.D.) soon after.

Military discharge was issued on August 23, 1917 in Brisbane, (1st M.D.) due to medical unfitness.

For serving his country Sapper 237 John Thomas Perry, 1st Tunnelling Company was issued with the British War Medal (12196) and the Victory Medal (12037).

A Statement of Service was sent to the Brisbane Department of Repatriation on June 29, 1929.