Profile

EGAN, Thomas Sylvester
(Service number 22163)

Aliases
First Rank	Rifleman	Last Rank	Rifleman

Birth

Date	13/06/1894	Place of Birth	Temuka

Enlistment Information

Date	3 May 1916	Age	21 years
Address at Enlistment	Featherston M Camp
Occupation	Telegraphist
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Eugene EGAN (father), Police-station, Greymouth; then of Police Station, Timaru
Religion	Roman Catholic
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 7 inches. Weight 133 lbs. Chest measurement 32½-35 inches. Complexion dark. Eyes blue. Hair dark. Sight - both eyes 6/6. Hearing and colour vision both normal. Limbs well formed. Full and perfect movement of all joints. Chest well formed. Heart and lungs normal. Teeth sufficient. No illnesses. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, nveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccination. Godd bodily and mental health. No slight defects. No fits. Fit.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	7th Reinforcements 3rd Battalion, G Company
Date	21 August 1916
Transport	Mokoia
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Plymouth, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	New Zealand Rifle Brigade

Military Awards

Campaigns	Messines; Passchendaele
Service Medals	British War Medal; Victory Medal
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date	26 January 1919	Reason	Termination of Period of Engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Gassed on Western Front and admitted to a military hospital in London on 25 February 1918.

Post-war Occupations

Postal worker

Death

Date	24 May 1970	Age	75 years
Place of Death	34 Woodlands Road, Timaru (residence)
Cause
Notices	Timaru Herald, 26 May 1970
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section, Row 100, Plot 184
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Thomas Sylvester EGAN was the son of Eugene and Mary (née ELKIS) EGAN. His father was Senior-Sergeant of the Police and was involved in the arrest of Thomas Hall when he attempted to murder his wife.

A grandson, Geoffrey Egan, recalls: "Thomas Sylvester Egan was my father's father and got to the front lines. There were two notable stories from the front lines. The first was when the Germans fired shells at grandfather's comrades they dived into a hole, a shell landed near them, the two men each side of him were killed but Tom only suffered a nick to his ankle. The second story was he fell victim to mustard gas so bad he was sent home, he couldn't shave for two years."

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [20 October 2014]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5922 0037366) [12 August 2015]; Timaru Herald, 30 April 1917, 7 March 1918, 30 September 1919, Temuka Leader, 22 May 1919 (Papers Past) [20 October 2014]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [11 April 2014]; Timaru Herald, 26 & 29 May 1970 (Timaru District Library) [29 June 2016]; SCRoll web submission by G Egan, 13 January 2022.

External Links

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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.