Thomas Henry Fleming

FLEMING, Thomas Henry- – – – SPC 1899-1907

DoB:- – 1890, Richmond, VIC

Father:– – Thomas Fleming

Mother:– – Annie Maria, nee Farrell

Thomas Henry Fleming was a boarder from Melbourne.

Service No:– 880

Rank:– – Private

Unit:– – 21st Infantry Battalion

Thomas Fleming enlisted on 26 March, 1915 at Melbourne. He was 24 years old, five feet, four and a half inches tall, of fair complexion with grey eyes and fair hair. His occupation at the time was warehouseman. He embarked on 10 May 1915 from Melbourne aboard the Ulysses.

In January 1916 Private Fleming was admitted to the 1st Australian General Hospital in Heliopolis, with diphtheria. By February 1916, his condition was diagnosed as -‘smokers’ heart’. He was transferred to Montasa Convalescent Hospital, and then to Ghezirah.- After a few weeks of recovery, he proceeded to Alexandria, en route to Marseilles. Once again, in the field in Rouen, his lungs were affected with influenza and he was hospitalised.

By 2 March 1917, he was transferred to Administrative Headquarters in London, to prepare for return to Australia for Transport Duties. He disembarked from the Themistocles at Melbourne in July 1917, and was transferred to -‘on duty Nursing Staff’. However, by 29 August 1917, it was clear that Private Fleming was too ill to continue in this line, and he was discharged from the AIF at Melbourne, as medically unfit. His disability was noted as neurasthenia and disorderly cardiac action.

Thomas returned to civilian life, and married Annie Doris Taylor in 1923. They settled in the Melbourne suburb of Pascoe Vale and had ten children.

Thomas died on 16 October 1969, aged 79 years. He succumbed to chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive airways disease from which he had suffered for years. He was buried at the Fawkner Cemetery in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.