New Information Re. Nicholas Sheridan's Occupation & Residence.

I have been wondering for several years about two references to Peter Sheridan's birthplace as being Moolort rather than Carisbrook- once in his attestation papers for WW1, and the other in a hospital admission record for Maryborough hospital:

" Peter Sheridan, 5th Battalion; Joined 15 September, 1914. Born in the parish of Moolort, near Carisbrook, Victoria. Occupation: sawyer. Aged 36 years."- Attestation papers.

"Sheridan, Peter. Date of admission: January 25, 1886. 8 years old, Maryborough. Roman Catholic. Accident. Native of Moolort."-Hospital records, Maryborough Hospital.

Apart from eldest child Barney Sheridan, who was born at Walhalla, as far as we knew the other nine Sheridan siblings had all been born in Carisbrook, so I never got around to officially checking Peter's place of birth.

I remedied that situation last night when I downloaded his birth certificate from the wonderful Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages site, and my two morsels of information were proved correct...Peter Sheridan was indeed born in the little settlement opf Moolort, located some 13 km by road from Carisbrook. It lies about half way between Ballarat and Bendigo, and was once a large gold mining area
Peter Sheridan was born at Moolort on December 2, 1877. His father, Nicholas Sheridan, was noted as being a 36 year old "platelayer'. Investigation revealed that a platelayer was employed by the railways to be responsible for all aspects of track maintenance, such as replacing worn-out rails or rotten sleepers. They usually worked in gangs with a given area, or 'length', of track to look after.
The Moolort Railway Station was opened on July 7, 1874. In May of 1874, Nicholas Sheridan was still a miner living in Carisbrook (information given on the birth certificate of his daughter Mary). By the time his next child, son James, arrived in January 1876, however, Nicholas had joined the Railways and the family had moved to Moolort.

Thomas Francis Sheridan, child number eight, arrived in May of 1880, and his birth certificate reveals that he was born in Annesley Street, Carisbrook, the same address as his sister Mary in 1874. This tells us that the Sheridan family left Carisbrook in c. late 1874-75, and returned by 1880. Nicholas's obituary is more precise: "Giving up mining in 1874, he entered the government service as a permanent officer of the Railway department."

Nicholas continued to work for the railway for over twenty years. Again, to quote from his obituary:
" Having proved himself to be thoroughly reliable, and a man who could be depended upon, he was sent to this town (Yarrawonga) a little more than twenty years ago. Mr Sheridan shortly afterwards brought his family here, and made Yarrawonga his home ever since. About six years ago he was removed by his department to Arcadia, but as he did not relish leaving Yarrawonga, where he owned a good deal of real estate, and where his family were comfortably settled, he resigned his appointment after two months further service and retired on a pension." -Yarrawonga Mercury and Southern Riverina Advertiser, March 3, 1904.

The railway from Melbourne reached Yarrawonga in 1886, which coincides with Nicholas Sheridan's appointment in the town.
The Victoria Government Gazette from July 1887 published a List of Railway Employees, which included both Nicholas Sheridan and his wife Bridget:

"Sheridan, Bridget. Gatewoman
Sheridan, Nicholas. Ganger."
No location was stated, but the Sheridans were living in Yarrawonga by this stage, so the appointments must have applied to Yarrawonga. A gateswoman was responsible for closing the gates across a railway crossing when a train was due to pass, to prevent anyone from being injured or killed in a collision. This would have required the Sheridan family to live very close to the crossing, which was located in Telford Street, Yarrawonga.

My Uncle, Jack Sheridan, informed me that Bridget also acted as gateswoman at Carisbrook, and that the family lived close to the railway crossing.

A similar list of Employees published in the Government Gazette in March 1890 still had Nicholas Sheridan as a ganger with the Engineer's branch, but there was no sign of Bridget as a gatewoman or gatekeeper.
Nicholas was still residing in Telford Street when he died in 1904, but it not known if it was the same home as where the family initially settled.

Comparison photos of James Marshall

We know, thanks to his granddaughters Judy Clifton and Helen Howard, that the older man in the bottom photo is James Marshall, Rose Annie Sheridan's husband. This photo would have been taken prior to 1926 when James Marshall passed away.

The question is...does the real James Marshall in the bottom photo match any of the men standing in front of the Volunteer Arms Hotel in the top photo? About 15 to 20 years would separate the two photographs...I still favour the man under the 'J. Marshall' sign as being James Marshall publican.

Opinions, anyone???

Death certificate of Annie Veronica Marshall, daughter of Rose Annie Sheridan and James Marshall.

Above: The death certificate of Annie Veronica Marshall who died of cholera aged only six months.

Birth & death certificates of James Dunbar Marshall, son of Rose Annie Sheridan & James Marshall.

Above: The birth certificate of James Dunbar Marshall, first child born of the marriage of James Marshall and Rose Annie Sheridan.

Above: The death certificate of six year old James Dunbar Marshall.

Photos of the family of Rose Annie Sheridan & James Marshall.

Above: A group gathered outside of the Baxter Hall, for reasons unknown. The lady holding the flowers on the left of centre is Rose Annie Sheridan Marshall, and the man by her side is her husband James Marshall. Their youngest two children are also in the photo- Genevieve Bridget in the white dress on the left of her mother, and Peter Wallace in the school uniform by his father's side. This photo kindly came from the collection of Genevieve Marshall, Rose Annie's daughter.

ABOVE: Rose Annie Marshall (seated) with her youngest son, Peter Wallace Marshall and on the left her youngest daughter Genevieve. On Rose Annie's knee and by her side are two of her Nash grandsons- Jim Nash (young boy) and Aggie's babe - no name. Rose Annie's eldest daughter, Aggie (Agnes) married Stephen Charles Nash in 1925.

ABOVE: Rose Annie Sheridan Marshall with her youngest daughter, Gene (Genevieve Bridget).

Ali Sheridan

10. Alice Christina Sheridan

Above: The birth certificate of Alice "Ali" Sheridan, tenth and final child born to Nicholas Sheridan and Bridget McGrath.

Alice Christina Sheridan was born on April 9, 1884, at Carisbrook, Victoria, the youngest of ten children born to Nicholas Sheridan and Bridget McGrath. She was only a baby when her parents made the move from Carisbrook to yarrawonga, and so grew up in the small town on the Murray River.
Poor "Ali", as she was known, was quite cross-eyed, as can be seen from the photograph above. She was also of a very highly-strung nature, and never married, spending her early adult years living with her parents in Yarrawonga, and then after their deaths residing with her sister Rose Annie Marshall and her family in Baxter.
Ali was once engaged to be married, but for reasons long forgotten the engagement ended and she never again formed a romantic attachment with a man. Her nephew Bill Marshall wrote of her:-
" Alice had a certain talent for music and in our childhood days she used to play us to sleep on the violin, or her little accordian. She was of a highly nervous temperament, and lived on a pension for many years because of that. She used to pay frequent visits to her dear friend at the Yarrawonga Convent, Sister Mary Cathleen.
Alice met a tragic end when a close friend of ours at Baxter hit her with his car on July 10, 1958. She died immediately, and we buried her at Frankston with Mum and dad, in their grave. Alice lived with Kathleen and me for eight years after our marriage, until her tragic death."

My father also remembers visits from his Aunty Ali and her sister Mary Hampton from Yarrawonga when he was a child. The sisters would catch the little train from Yarrawonga to Tungamah and spend the day with their sister-in-law, Bridget Bourke Sheridan, who lived with the family of her son Patrick 'Bob' Sheridan in Barr Street, Tungamah. Dad remembers sharing meals with his great-aunts around the big Sheridan family table, and how Ali would devise a series of distractions for her sister Mary so she could pilfer morsels of food from her plate whilst she was looking away.

Nick Sheridan's Gallipoli post card

Nicholas Sheridan, member of the Yarrawonga Rifle Club.

9. Nicholas Henry Sheridan

Above: Nicholas Sheridan's birth certificate. Note that he was officially named Nicholas FRANCIS, but known always as Nicholas HENRY.

Above: This photo of Nicholas Henry Sheridan was sent to his sister Rose Annie Marshall on April 29, 1917.

Nicholas Henry Sheridan was born on February 27, 1882, at Carisbrook, the seventh son and ninth child born to Nicholas Sheridan and Bridget McGrath. Only a small child when his family moved to Yarrawonga, all of Nicholas's education was conducted at the Sisters of Mercy Convent. After his schooling was completed, Nick was apprenticed as a sawyer at a local sawmill for 7 years. Nicholas then moved to NSW where he became a telegraph linesman.
One year later he joined the 4th Battalion in Kensington, NSW, on September 20, 1914. He fought at Gallipoli, and was in the firing line until he fell very ill with severe diarrhoea and other health issues which eventually led to him being transported back to Australia, where he was discharged in June of 1916.

Like his brother Tom, Nick sent post cards from abroad to his nieces back in Yarrawonga...one such card was written to nine year old Bridget Sheridan, daughter of his brother Paddy. It was written on March 9, 1915, in Egypt, and reads as follows:
" Mena Camp, Cairo. A card for little Bridge, she was a good girl for sending me a card for my birthday. Peter, Hughie and me are all well, trusting you are all the same. We were sorry to hear of your grandfather's death, may his soul R.I.P., also Mother and Father and Jack. Goodbye and God bless you all. From Uncle Nick XXXXXXXXXX"

A post card showing a scene from Gallipoli and sent in the years just after the War was sent by Nick to his brother Paddy in Berrigan. Written in pencil, it reads:
" Dear Brother, This is the real picture of the landing Place of the Australian and New Zealand troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula, April 25, 1915. The point that you can see out in the water was where the Turks had barbed wire entanglements in the water 6 feet high and land mines so were were lucky in not striking that place for our landing. From N.H.S."

After the War, Nicholas Sheridan continued to work in the Post Office system until his health began to fail due to the family curse, tuberculosis. He retired to become a patient in the Lady Davidson Home at Turramurra, near Sydney. During this time he was almost completely bedridden.
Bill Marshall, Nick's nephew,wrote the following about his Uncle:
" His was a very different nature from his brother Peter's, and we Marshall kids found him a bit grumpy when he came over from Sydney every year for his annual holidays. Late in his life he developed an attachment to a very nice girl in Sydney, but his failing health due to tuberculosis prevented him from marrying her."

Nicholas Henry Sheridan died in the Caulfield Military Hospital on October 1, 1940, aged 58 years. He was buried in the Frankston Cemetery with his brother Peter and sisters Rose Annie Marshall and Alice Sheridan.


 

T.F Sheridan

Above: Fallen Soldiers Monument, Yarrawonga

Above: Teresa Emma Sheridan, wife of Thomas Francis Sheridan, and their son, John.

Above: Thomas Sheridan's only daughter, Alison Sheridan. Father and daughter never met, as Alison was born in April 1916 after her father had left Australia to serve in France. He was killed in action at Fromelles only three month's after her birth.

This photo was held for years by the family of Jock Marshall, whose mother Rose Annie was Tom Sheridan's sister. It is identified as being "Uncle Tom Sheridan", but appears to me to be dissimilar to Tom as he appears in other photos. He is wearing the uniform of the Yarrawonga Fire Brigade, similar to that worn by his brother John Sheridan in a photo posted in a previous blog entry.

This photo is seemingly of Tom Sheridan in civilian clothes, and on the reverse of the photograph are the photographer's instructions to crop it into a bust portrait, and add a captain's uniform of the 29th Battalion. Tom's description was also noted-dark hair and eyes and a fresh complexion- so obviously Paddy Sheridan, of Barooga Street, Berrigan, was commissioning a memorial portrait to commemorate his fallen brother.

Thomas Francis Sheridan

More postcards from Tom...

Postcards from Tom Sheridan WW1

8. Thomas Francis Sheridan

Above: The birth certificate of Thomas Francis "Tom" Sheridan, the eighth child of Nicholas Sheridan and Bridget McGrath.

Thomas Francis Sheridan (above) was born at Carisbrook on May 22, 1880, the eighth child and sixth son born to Nicholas Sheridan and Bridget McGrath. Tom was educated at the Convent of Mercy Catholic School, Yarrawonga, after his family moved to the town in the mid-1880s.
In 1902, aged 22, Tom joined the Royal Australian Artillery at Queenscliff. Five years later he was transferred to Queensland after a promotion to Sergeant.
On June 30,1908,at the Church of Sacred Heart, Highgate Hill, Perth, Thomas Sheridan married Teresa Emma Warren. Their first child John Sheridan was born two years later on June 16, 1910,in Perth. John married Daisie Waterson, and had one child -John Alexander Sheridan. John Snr was a carpenter, and died at Heidleberg Repatriation Hospital c.1982, aged 72.

Two more sons followed, both of whom died young. Thomas Alfred Sheridan was born prematurely in August of 1912,at 225 Inkerman Street, St. Kilda, and survived just 54 hours. He died on August 22, 1912, and was buried in the Spring Vale Cemetery.His father Thomas Sheridan registered his son's death, and gave his occupation as a military instructor.

On the 11th of May, 1914,Teresa Sheridan went into premature labour with her third child, again with tragic results. William Sheridan lived for only one and a half hours,his cause of death being recorded as 'prematurity and heart failure'. Teresa had gone into the Carlton Women's Hospital to give birth to William, but sadly not even their expertise could save him.
Daughter Allison was born two years later on April 5, 1916.

"BIRTHS: SHERIDAN: On the 5th April at 34 Greville Street, Prahran, the wife of Lieutenant T.F. Sheridan, of the 8th Brigade, on active service abroad, a daughter."
-from The Argus, Saturday, April 8, 1916.

Allison Sheridan never met her father...conceived just prior to Tom’s departure overseas, she was born three months before his death on the battlefields of France. As an elderly woman, Allison wrote to me of the loss of her father:
" Wars do a lot of damage in people's lives. I'm not bitter over the loss of my dad. I felt it when I was at school, and envied the other children with fathers."
Allison was born in her family home at 34 Greville Street, Prahran. She worked as a straw hat machinist from 1932-1937, up until she married her husband Robert Gerard Fenner, on September 9, 1937. Robert was a boiler-maker in the Newport Workshops for 35 years until his death from cancer in 1957, aged 56. Allison and Robert Fenner had two children- Helen Frances and Raymond Francis.

The following newspaper article appeared in the Queenscliff newspaper, date unknown:

" Thomas Francis Sheridan joined the Royal Australian Artillery at Queenscliff in 1902. In 1907 he was transferred to Queensland. After seven months in that state, he qualified for the rank of Staff-Sergeant Major A & I Staff. At the inauguration of compulsory training he was transferred as Staff-Sergeant Major to the 49th (Prahran) Infantry and worked in the formation of this new regiment.
At the outbreak of War he offered his services to go overseas, but his services were retained by the Defence Department.
In August of 1915, he was one of eight specially selected from the A & I Staff for service abroad, an opportunity of which he availed himself, and was appointed Lieutenant in the 8th Brigade. He embarked on November 10, 1915, on the troopship "Ascanius". He saw several months service in Egypt then was sent to France where he was promoted to captain in June, 1916.

While leading his Company over "No Man's land" in an attack at 'Fleurbaix', he was severely wounded, but succeeded in getting into the enemy's trench. With a small party he pushed on to capture a 'strong point', but no member of the party returned."

Thomas Francis Sheridan died on July 20, 1916, fighting for his country on France's bloody battlefields, aged 36 years.

Tom Sheridan has always seemed to me to have been a kind, compassionate man. I have several postcards sent by him in the Middle East to his young nieces back home in Australia that depict a soldier who bothered to sit down amongst all of the horror and carnage of war to pen a few words to the little girls of his brother Paddy. One of them reads:
"My Dear Bridget,I received your very nice letter also the pretty birthday card that you sent me which I received yesterday. I thank you very much for your thoughtfulness in thinking of me over here. With fondest love from Uncle Tom XXX 30. 5. 1916"...written just a month and a half before his death.

Following is the information given on the AIF Project website
( http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au) regarding Thomas Sheridan:

Thomas Francis SHERIDAN

Place of birth: Carisbrook, Maryborough, Victoria
Religion: Roman Catholic
Occupation: Soldier
Address: 34 Greville Street, Prahran, Victoria
Marital status: Married
Age at embarkation: 35
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 148 lbs
Next of kin Wife: Mrs Teresa Emma Sheridan, 34 Greville Street, Prahran, Victoria
Previous military service: Served in the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery (5.5 years, still serving); Instructional Staff (8 years, Staff Sergeant Major)
Enlistment date: 28 August 1914
Rank on enlistment: Lieutenant
Unit name: 29th Battalion, A Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number: 23/46/1
Embarkation details: Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on 10 November 1915
Rank from Nominal Roll: Captain
Unit from Nominal Roll: 29th Battalion
Fate: Killed in Action 20 July 1916
Place of burial: No known grave
Commemoration details V.C. Corner (Panel No 1), Australian Cemetery, Fromelles, France
Panel number, Roll of Honour,
Australian War Memorial 116
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records:
Parents: Nicholas and Bridget SHERIDAN;
Wife: Teresa SHERIDAN, 26 Mason Street, South Yarra.
Native of Carisbrook
Other details War service:
Egypt, Western Front

Embarked Melbourne, 10 November 1915; disembarked Suez, 7 December 1915.

Promoted Captain, Moascar, 1 June 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 16 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 23 June 1916.

Posted missing in action, 19/20 July 1916.

Placed on Seconded List, 20 July 1916.

Struck off strength of 29th Bn, 20 October 1916.

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 23 August 1917, pronounced fate as 'Killed in Action, 20 July 1916'.



The circumstances of Tom Sheridan's death- like all the instances of the men who were killed in the appalling carnage inflicted upon Australian troops in the Battle of Fromelles- were heartbreaking. The Files of the Red Cross, as made available on the wonderful Australian War memorial website, fill in the gaps of what happened to Tom by providing statements by eyewitnesses who were amongst the last to see Tom alive. The family of Tom had written to the Red Cross asking for assistance in determining what had happened to him. Because his body was not retrieved by Australian forces, there was no record of his burial, and rumours started to circulate back in Australia that he was not dead at all, but missing in action and probably a Prisoner of War held by the Germans.

Following are statements contained in the Red Cross File concerning Thomas Sheridan's investigation:

Statement, 2035 Pte H.R. FLEMING (?), 29th Battalion (patient, No 2 General Hospital [Palais]): August 1916: 'At Laventie about midnight of the 19th Aug. I saw the Captain sitting in the first line German trench. He was wounded. We were attacking the German lines and took two lines and were driven back to our trenches. I heard nothing more of him.'

Statement: Pte W.A. Tait, 1254, 29th Australian I.F, 1st London General Hospital, Camberwell, London. Home address Croydon, Australia.
"August 1916. Informant states: "I knew captain Sheridan, he was missing July 19/16, not August as stated. he was seen wounded at Fromelles, but did not return."
Eye Witness: No


Statement, 2166 Pte J.G. WILSON, D Company, 29th Bn (patient, 3rd Western General Hospital, Ninian Park, Cardiff, Wales. Home address: 3 Collins Street, Geelong West, Victoria.), 5 December 1916: 'Captain Sheridan was killed by bullet wound in the chest. I saw him fall, near the German wire entanglements at Flerimel (sic), on the Levantie Front.'

Statement, 193 Pte J.W. BONNICK, 29th Bn (patient, 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth, England. Home address: Horseferry Road, Westminster), 7 December 1916: 'Informant says that Capt. Sheridan was in the German trench when the order came to retire. The artillery fire from the enemy's guns was too heavy for our men to hold the trench and Informant thinks Capt. Sheridan from the position he was in would not be able to get out. This was at Fromelles.'

Statement, 2157 Sapper W.I. WILKINSON, D Company, 29th Bn (patient, Harbourne Hall VAD Hospital, Birmingham, England. Home address: Sydney Street, Kilmore, Victoria), 16 March 1917: 'I knew Capt. Sheridan, he was badly wounded in No Mans (sic) Land, near Fromelles July 19-20th, 1916. He never came back, and even had he fallen into the enemy's hands wounded, and survived, something would have been heard of him before now.'

Statement, 752 Pte M, ANDERSON, 29th Bn (patient, No 11 Stationary Hospital, Rouen), 27 March 1917: 'Informant states that he was told by Pte. Clinton pf B Co. that he had seen Capt. Sheridan lying wounded in the German trenches at Fleurbaix on July 19th. These trenches were not occupied by us.'

Statement: 543 A.H GROVES, 29th Battalion, A.I.F, Dartford, March 12, 1917.
"Cpt. T.F. Sheridan, Missing 19.7.16. Refer to Cpt. Caldwell Smith (Adjutant) who will tell you he was killed and that his body probably fell into the enemy's hands. This was at Fleurbaix."

Statement: 638, Sergt. C.A. TAYLOR, B Coy, No. 6 General, Rouen. March 27, 1917.
" Capt. Sheridan was in A Coy. At Fromelles, on this date, he was 2nd in Command to Capt. Mortimer who was O.C. A Coy. We are all certain that they are both killed. The last I saw of them, they were together with a strong firing party. If they had been taken prisoners, we should have heard, as some Sergeants were taken and have sent a list of Prisoners of War."

Statement: Pte J. LOCKE, 2194, No. 20 General. "I know that one of the men in the battalion has heard from Australia from Capt. Sheridan's people stating that he is a P/W. He had been wounded, but was progressing satisfactorily. I do not know the name of the man who received the letter."

Thomas Frances Sheridan was certified as having been killed in action on the 19-20th July, 1916 by A.I.F Headquarters on 12 September, 1917.

One of the statements given by Sergeant C.A Taylor concerning Tom Sheridan's last sightings mentioned that Tom was Second in Command to Captain Mortimer of A Coy, 29th Battalion, and the last Taylor had seen of them, they were together with a strong firing party. I investigated this Captain Mortimer, and what I found was heart-wrenching...he was only 20 years old when he died, and adored by the men whom he commanded.

Captain Kenneth Malcolm Mortimer, 29 Battalion, AIF, was born in 1895, the son of David Horn Mortimer and Florence Mary Mortimer, of Leneva West,near Wodonga, Victoria. Kenneth was educated at the Wangaratta Agricultural High School, Victoria, and at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. He graduated from Duntroon Military College in 1915, and was appointed Lieutenant in AIF 1 July 1915, being posted to the 29 Battalion.He was promoted to Captain on the 20 February 1916. (A brother, David Horn Mortimer, served in the AIF, was severely wounded, but survived.) Kenneth Mortimer was killed in action on 20 July 1916 during the Battle of Fromelles...his age at time of his death was 20 years 9 months.
The statements given by various men during the inquiry into his death reveal how revered Captain Mortimer was by his fellow soldiers...
"Statement: Sergt. Chapman 199, 29th Australians, Northumberland War Hospital, Ward 18, Newcastle.
Informant states that on July 19th at 6 p.m. at Fleurbaix an attack was made and two or three lines of trenches were taken. They were only held till the early morning. The battalion retired then on its original front trench and Captain Mortimer was last seem in the German 2nd line. He had been wounded, and was trying to crawl along.The ground that he would have had to cross to reach our trenches was under very heavy fire, but some men who were wounded with him got back.
One of these men was Sgt. Whitlock A Coy, who on his way back saw Captain Mortimer. Informant cannot say how severe captain Mortimer's wound was as his great idea was to get his men back safely and he would not let anyone stay to help him.
Informant cannot say enough for him; "A fine fellow" he calls him. "You could not meet a nicer man in a day's walk".
he says that he was so much liked by all, and is terribly missed. He had been in the same Coy as a Lieut. and was extremely popular then. Then he was taken away from the Coy for a time and served as a signals Officer, and informant says that the whole Coy was so delighted when he came back to it as O.C." Written 18/10/1916."

Statement: Pte Matthews 1190, Ward 12, Harefield. Re. 29th Battn AIF. Moertimer Capt K.H, and Sheridan Capt T.F. "In the raid of German trenches near Armentiers, 19th July, both of these officers were in the German trenches. I was talking to Captain Sheridan. We were not in the trenches more than half an hour when there was a counter attack and we had to retire. Neither of them came back with us."

Statement: Captain M. Coats, 29th Battn AIF, 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth Common, S.W. Home address 97 Victoria Street, Footscray, Victoria.
Informant states that on the 18th July at Fleurbaix near Armentieres at 6 p.m. the 31st and 32nd Batt. commenced the assault by gaining the enemy's 2nd line. The 29th Batt acted as General reserve and at about 8 p./m. Captain Mortimer's Coy was ordered up to firing line and was in 2nd line of German trenches the greater part of the night. They were bombed and machined gunned on the flanks and rear and some of those who returned said they were ordered to retire by Captain Mortimer who was then seen to move forward evidently with the object of ascertaining whether any other members of his Company had been left in the front trench. He has not been seen since."

Statement: Meeking 259, Ward 16, Harefield Hospital: "I saw him in German trenches badly wounded."

Statement: P. Towner 2133; B Coy, No. 11 General,Staples. 24/10/1916. "I saw him in the German lines. He went back from the German front line to their second line. Corp. McGregor of A Coy was the last to see him. He was wounded then. We had to retire and a terrible lot of our fellows were captured."

Statement: Captain Chapman, 29th Battn, AIF. " He led men on the night of the 19th July in the charge and never returned. The date in the Blue Book is wrong. He was seen encouraging men in the German trenches between 1 and 2 a.m., then unwounded but his clothes were very torn; when we retired in the morning at about 3 or 4 a.m. he was missing. The trenches were reoccupied by the Germans."

The last statement comes from a fellow soldier in the 29th Battalion who was captured as a prisoner of war and gave his statement whilst still interned: Private William George Edwards, 2016, 29th Battn, same Contingent, interned at Frankfurt; dated 10/12/1918: " Having read the list of missing, am sorry to say that I seen Captain Mortimer of the 29th Batt., AIF, wounded on the 19th of July, 1916, in the trenches at La Vantie."

As I write this blog, Thomas Sheridan is being investigated as to whether he is one of the unknown soldiers who was buried by the Germans in a mass grave at Fromelles in July 1916. DNA testing is to be carried out on two males, one of whom is descended from Tom's brother Paddy Sheridan, and the other who is Tom's grandson, and two females who are descended from his eldest sister Rose Annie. It would be simply amazing to be able to give Tom Sheridan a final recognised resting place after 94 years lying in an unknown grave.

Some of Peter Sheridan's Service Record WW1

Peter Sheridan's postcard from the Orvieto, 1914.