"A Journey Down Under and Back"
(Page 3 of 7... Arrival in Australia)
Thomas Poole emigrated to Western Australia under the 'Soldier Settlement Scheme' in 1919.
Arriving in Albany via ship (unknown name), Thomas initially worked as a
farmhand in the
Eastern wheat-belt.
Thomas and Laura Poole resided in the Perth suburb of Victoria Park,
from 1922 to 1925. The marriage brought the couple a son (Leslie Stafford
Poole), who died aged only a few months old on 3 January, 1924. Leslie was
buried at the
Karrakatta Cemetery (Anglican) in Perth.
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Frank Poole had a
'Nominated Immigrant' card for 1925 (for use in the growing agricultural
industry), and it can be viewed here. (The state of Western Australia - as did
other states in Australia - offered skilled workers a chance to live and work
in the state, by 'nominating' them. The practice still goes on today, in the
form of offering overseas workers a visa to live and work in areas of
Australia, should the worker have a valuable skill that the state requires.)
Indeed, it is without doubt that the third army brother William Poole would
have joined his parents and siblings in Australia, had he not been killed in
WW1. Private William Poole (born Elberton, Glos in 1897) - (Service number
16318) of 1st Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry, died on 4 October 1917.
William has no known
grave, though he is remembered on a plaque at Tyne Cot Memorial, Passchendaele
(formerly known as Ypres), Belgium.
William had been injured earlier in WW1. Wounded, he recuperated in England
in 1916 or 1917, before returning to the front in Belgium, where he was killed.
A copy of a '1st Btn
Casualty List' which although difficult to decipher, identifies William
Poole as joining the army on 1st June, 1916, and then joining his battalion on
4th June, 1916. On 2nd July, 1916, William is admitted to a field dressing
station with a gunshot wound, and then admitted to a General hospital the
following day. It details that the wound is to his left hand, and William
returns to England on 4th July, 1916, for recuperation. So, he had not been at
war too long, before he was injured.
After recovering, William returns to the front on 13th September, 1916,
rejoining his battalion on 26th September, 1916. William is then listed as
'Missing' on 4th October, 1917.
So, he joined up at 18 years of age, wounded at 19, and killed at aged 20. What
horrors these WW1 men must have faced!
Continue reading Page 4 (of 7)
"A Journey Down Under and Back"...
( Leave Laura Daisy Poole Story
)