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.