TANSEY John Allen 298

2nd CORPORAL JOHN ALLEN TANSEY 298 – 1st Tunnelling Company

Born in 1890 at Edenhope, Victoria, the son of John and Annie (nee Moloney) Tansey, John Allen Tansey completed the Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad at Holdsworthy, New South Wales, on 7 August 1915 and underwent a medical examination which found him to be ‘fit for active service’.

He signed the Attestation Paper, and the Oath to ‘well and truly serve’, on 26 August 1915. A single Miner, he was 26 years and 5 months of age, 5ft 5¼ins tall, weighed 139lbs, had a fair complexion, good vision in his blue eyes and fair hair.

John’s father had died in 1914 and he named as his Next-of-Kin his mother, Mrs Annie Cotton of Mount Gambier, South Australia.

Appointed to No.4 Company, Mining Corps at Casula, New South Wales, he trained with the Miners until they embarked for the European theatre of war.

Following a farewell parade in the Domain, Sydney, the Australian Mining Corps embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on 20 February 1916 on board HMAT A38 Ulysses.

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.

Ulysses arrived in Melbourne, Victoria on 22 February and the Miners were camped at Seymour while additional stores and equipment were loaded onto Ulysses. Departing Melbourne on 1 March, Ulysses sailed to Fremantle, Western Australia where additional members of the Corps were embarked. After a delay of about a month due to Ulysses requiring repairs following a collision with an uncharted rock when leaving Fremantle on 8 March, The Mining Corps sailed for the European Theatre on 1 April 1916. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’.

The ship arrived at Suez, Egypt on 22 April, departing for Port Said the next day; then on to Alexandria. 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 Mining Corps was transhipped to B1 Ansonia for the final legs to Marseilles, France via Valetta, Malta. Arriving at Marseilles on 5 May, most of the men entrained for Hazebrouck where they arrived to set up their first camp on 8 May 1916.

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), named by themselves as the ‘Alphabeticals’.

John had embarked with the No.1 Company of the Mining Corps and shortly after arriving in France he was hospitalised with Mumps on 14 June. He was admitted to No.7 General Hospital at St Omer on 29 June and was discharged to Base Details on 6 July, rejoining his unit on 13 July.

He was officially transferred to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company on 24 December 1916

John was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous service, the details for which are not known at this stage. The award was promulgated in the Fourth Supplement No.30095 to the London Gazette dated 25 May 1917 and appeared in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No.174 of 11th October 1917. It was noted in his file on 5 June 1917.

The unit War Diary records that the unit was in the Poperinghe area in March working on the Larchwood tunnel system and that enemy activity could be heard by the listeners. Enemy mines were blown and damage was done to the Allied tunnel system.

On 25 April at 2.15 p.m. during an enemy bombardment, a minenwerfer or heavy shell pierced the Officers Dugout Quarters, exploding therein. As a result, 3 officers and 7 men were killed, and 4 officers and about a dozen men were badly gassed. John’s award may have been in recognition of the rescue efforts which followed this explosion. [see ‘Western Front/1st Australian Tunnelling Company/ Easter Raid 1917’ on this website]

John was appointed Lance Corporal on 14 January 1918 and later promoted to 2nd Corporal.

He returned to Australia on board Ormonde, embarking at London on 16 June 1919 and disembarking in Sydney on 4 August 1919.

His Military Medal was forwarded to his mother in Mt Gambier for safekeeping on 17 July and was received by her on 25 July 1919.

2nd Corporal John Allen Tansey was discharged from the A.I.F. in the 2nd Military District, New South Wales on 26 September 1919. He was entitled to wear the Military Medal, British War Medal (33295) and the Victory Medal (32870).

John Allen McLachlan Tansey died in 1929 at Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

In March 1929, his wife wrote to Base Records, Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, from Merthyr, New South Wales requesting a copy of John’s discharge papers required by Repatriation to assist her.

The reply, on 28 March, requested proof of marriage, as John had been single when discharged.

His medical documents were forwarded to the Repatriation Commission, Sydney, on 13 April 1934.