Thomas Henry Nevins

NEVINS, Thomas Henry- – – SPC 1911

DoB:- – 14 August 1896, Inglewood, VIC

Father:- – Thomas Henry Nevins

Mother:- – Mary Ellen, nee Newman

Service No:- 4345

Rank:- – Private

Unit:- – 6th Battalion

Tom Nevins enlisted in the AIF on 14 August 1915 at the age of 19 years. He was a single man who worked as a surveyor’s assistant. He was fresh faced, with blue eyes and dark brown hair, he was five feet, seven inches tall.

From 17 August to 22 November 1915, Private Nevins attended signal school at Broadmeadows. On Christmas Eve he embarked for active service aboard the Demosthenes, travelling to Egypt. He was unwell upon arrival and in February 1916 was admitted to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo with meningitis.

Although there are gaps in his war papers, he must have recovered and been well enough to proceed to France in the first half of 1916. He was wounded in action on 18 August 1916 at Pozieres, France, and a few days later was admitted to the Kitchener Hospital in Brighton, England. He had sustained gunshot wounds to his hand, arm and thigh. In the operation, surgeons extracted two pieces of shell from the muscle and bone in his arm.

After some months recuperating in England, Private Nevins was prepared for his return to Australia for -‘a change’. He boarded the Ulysses at Plymouth on 13 February 1917, and was discharged as medically unfit on 26 May 1917 in Melbourne.

Thirteen months later, on 11 June 1918, Thomas Nevins re-enlisted. He was then 21 years and ten months old, and must have grown three inches taller, as his height was recorded as five feet, ten inches. He was given the rank of Private and attached to the 1st Battalion.

From June to December 1918, Private Nevins remained at the Recruitment Depot in Broadmeadows. He was discharged from the AIF on 24 December 1918 after serving a total of 197 days, due to the demobilisation of the AIF at the cessation of hostilities.

It seems that Thomas Nevins resumed studying, and lived with his parents at 9 Moore Street, Coburg for a time around 1919-1920. Electoral rolls have him at Quambatook working as an accountant, but by 1937 he was a labourer at St Arnaud. The next mention of Thomas is in 1977 when he is living at 151 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. The electoral roll indicates that he was no longer employed.

The College could not find a death record for Thomas Henry Nevins, but a search of cemetery records shows that he was buried in 1987 at the age of 90 years at Templestowe Cemetery, Victoria.