Tom Baxter Joyce

Tom Baxter Joyce

AWM P07658.001
Personal Information
Date of Birth	Not known "Not known" contains an extrinsic dash or other characters that are invalid for a date interpretation.
Place of Birth	Gates Head on Tyne, England
Death	1 Jun 1917
Place of Death	Pont de Nieppe near Armentières
Age at Enlistment	22 years old
Description	5'9¼" (1.76 m) tall ; 153 lbs 69.4 kg ; fresh complexion ; blue eyes ; fair hair
Occupation	Labourer
Religion	Church of England
Address	Jandakot Post Office (Banjup)
Next of Kin	Mother , Mrs Jayne Ann Joyce
Military Information
Reg Number	2115
Date of Enlistment	3 Apr 1916
Rank	Private
Unit/Formation	44th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcement
Date of Embarkation	13 Oct 1916 ‒ 2 Dec 1916
Ship Embarked On	HMAT A23 Suffolk
Fate	Killed in Action 1 Jun 1917
Monument	Banjup War Memorial WA State War Memorial Australian War Memorial
Medals	British War Medal Victory Medal

Pre War

Had spent 4 years as an apprentice in horse shoeing.

War Service

Entering camp, Tom was initially allocated to the 60th Depot Company, before on 1 May 1916 being allocated to the 5th reinforcement draft for the 51st Battalion. Later he was transferred to the 3rd draft for the 44th Battalion, and i was with them that he travelled to England aboard HMAT A23 Suffolk, disembarking on 2 Dec 1916. On arrival in England Tom joined the 11th Training Battalion until he proceeded overseas to France on 16 Jan 1917 aboard the HMT Princesse Clementine where he joined the 44th Battalion on 2 Jan 1917 in the front line trenches at Armentiès.

On 1 Jun 1917 the 44th Battalion was engaged in working parties near Pont de Nieppe when a huge dump of mortar shells at Hyde Park corner exploded, followed by a Very Light dump also catching fire. The enemy then shelled the area to take advantage of the confusion, with a working party from 'C' Company, 44th Battalion incurring six fatalities, including Tom. Neville Browning's book takes up the story, quoting 2nd Lieutenant E. Hocking.

I had our Company out on a working party and one shell caught eight of them and killed five straight out and wounded three. I had not left the place where they were working two minutes before they were hit, and was back amongst them before the smoke had time to disperse. Thee wounded men (one of whom has since died) were got into the dressing station and four of those killed were removed. As we were getting the last dead man on to the stretcher the Germans sent six more shells over so we had to take cover for the time. Eventually we got the last dead man away:

.

• 

  Strand Military Cemetery Hainaut
• 

  Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Tom's mother Joyce Baxter Joyce is awarded a pension of 18/6d per fortnight ($1.85) from 12 Aug 1917.

Notes

Buried STRAND MILITARY CEMETERY, Hainaut, Belgium - Plot II, Row D, Grave 6. Strand Military Cemetery is 13 kms south of Ieper (Ypres) town centre, on the Rijselseweg N365, which connects Ieper to Wijtschate, Messen and on to Armentieres.

The Drill of the Foot-Hills 1916 Jun-Jul edition mentions Tom on page 5.

Included on the Banjup War Memorial, but not on the Spearwood Monument

External Links

• WAMDL - Western Australian Military Digital Library has digitised Tom Joyce's service documents.
• AIF Project
• RSL Virtual War Memorial