Sapper Patrick Lahey

SAPPER PATRICK LAHEY

7470 – 3rd Tunnelling Company

Patrick Lahey was born in 1891 at Kempton, Tasmania, the son of Mary Cashman and John Lahey. His siblings were Thomas John, Mary Elizabeth (Minnie), Johannah, Jane, James, Ellen (Nell) and Leo.

Patrick was 24 years and 10 months old when he signed the Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad on 15 March 1916 at Claremont, Tasmania. His Trade/Calling was Hospital Attendant and his address was Melton Mowbray, Tasmania. Next of Kin was his brother, Leo Lahey, also of Melton Mowbray.

Patrick was single when he enlisted, and was 5 feet 9½ inches tall, weighed 172 lbs, and had a fair complexion, fair hair and hazel eyes. He was a Roman Catholic.

A Tasmanian newspaper photograph of September 1916 shows Patrick as a member of the Military Police Unit at Claremont and he may have served with this unit before transferring to the Mining Corps.

Once appointed to the Australian Mining Corps, he joined the Miners Reinforcements at Seymour, Victoria, on 12 February 1917.

Patrick embarked with the 169 March 1917 Reinforcements for the Tunnelling units on board HMAT A32 Themistocles.

The troopship sailed from Melbourne, Victoria on August 4, 1917. The voyage across the Pacific was rough and stormy for several days causing sea sickness on board. As the ship reached the tropics it became very hot. The ship reached Colon, Panama on 31 August 1917, and during an unavoidable eight-day delay, the troops had to endure very heavy rain and muggy conditions. The transport docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 18 September 1917 and departed three days later, enjoying good weather across the Atlantic. After a fifty-nine day voyage, the troops arriving in Glasgow, Scotland on 2 October 1917 and were then entrained for Tidworth, England.

One of the Tunnellers, 7427 Spr William James McPeak, died of acute transverse myelitis – a neurologic syndrome caused by inflammation of the spinal cord –on 14 August and was buried at sea. He was one of four soldiers to die on this voyage.

The unit camped at No. 3 Camp, Parkhouse, for further training before Patrick proceeded overseas to France on 22 November. He marched in to the Australian General Base Depot (AGBD) at Rouelles on 23 November; marched out to the 1st Anzac Corps Depot on 25 November; and from there was attached to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company, where he was taken on strength on 30 November 1917.

The 3rd Tunnelling Coy. was employed in the sectors around Loos, Lens, Vermelles and Givenchy, as well as at Hill 70, doing tunnelling and dug-out work. According to 3rd Company records, Patrick was one of 24 members of the unit shell gassed at Vermelles on 9 April 1918. He was treated at the 6th Casualty Clearing Station on the same day and immediately transferred to the 13th General Hospital at Boulogne. On 14 April he was transferred to the 10th Convalescent Depot and was discharged to the Rest Camp two days later. On 21 April he marched out of the Rest Camp to the AGBD and rejoined his unit on 29 April.

After the Armistice, the unit rebuilt roads and bridges and repaired infrastructure destroyed in the war. AWM images C04736, C04738 and C04739 show the work done by the unit during this period.

Patrick enjoyed some leave from France from 4 to 18 January 1919, rejoining his unit on 21 January.

He suffered a bout of tonsillitis on 21 March 1919 and was treated at the 72nd Field Ambulance. It appears he was also treated at the 51st Casualty Clearing Station on the same day for defective vision. He was transferred by the 5th Ambulance Train on 21 March and on 22 March was admitted to 7th Canadian General Hospital. On 31 March he embarked for England, where he was hospitalised at the Central Military Hospital at Chatham before being transferred to the 3rd Auxillary Hospital at Dartford on 2 April. He was discharged from hospital on 5 April to two weeks furlough, which was extended by three days. He returned to barracks on 22 April and was transferred to No. 3 Group at Codford.

Patrick left London on 12 May 1919 on board Zealandia for the voyage home, disembarking in Australia on 28 June 1919. In a medical examination prior to discharge, he complained of feeling very short-winded on doing any exertion, but had no other disability. At 25, his heart was already slightly enlarged. He was assessed as being 1/3 disabled in the labour market.

7470 Sapper Patrick Lahey was discharged from the A.I.F. medically unfit on 29 October, 1919 in the 6th Military District (Tasmania) entitled to wear the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Patrick Lahey died in Sydney, New South Wales on 5 December 1923 at the age of 33 from acute gastroenteritis and heart failure, another belated victim of the war.

1386 Private Thomas John Lahey – 15th Australian Infantry

Patrick’s older brother, Thomas John Lahey, was born in 1887. He signed up in Melton Mowbray in Tasmania on 25 November 1914 as a 27-year-old farmer.

Tom was single when he enlisted, and was 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 168 lbs, and had a dark complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. He was a Roman Catholic. Leo Lahey, his younger brother, was listed as next of kin.

The 15th Battalion AIF was raised from late September 1914, six weeks after the outbreak of war. Three-quarters of the battalion were recruited as volunteers from Queensland, and the rest from Tasmania.

With the 13th, 14th and 16th Battalions it formed the 4th Brigade, commanded by Colonel John Monash. The Queensland and Tasmanian recruits were united when the battalion trained together in Victoria, and embarked for overseas just before Christmas. After a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion sailed to Egypt, arriving in early February 1915. The First AIF was already there. In Egypt, the 4th Brigade became part of the New Zealand and Australian Division. The Brigade landed at Gallipoli late in the afternoon of 25 April 1915. From May until August, the 4th was heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead. In August, it attacked Hill 97 and took it at great cost, although Turkish reinforcements forced the Australians to withdraw.

Tom landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was evacuated to hospital in Malta on the Gloucester Castle suffering from gastritis and arrived there on 29 July. Gastric complaints were rife in the trenches at Gallipoli because the Turks left bodies unburied, unleashing swarms of flies and polluting the water supply.

In hospital in Malta, Tom developed pneumonia and died on 23 August 1915.

Along with two English soldiers, he was buried in Addolatorata Cemetery, Malta.

The burial and gravestone were paid for by the Mayor of Malta.

Thomas John Lahey’s belongings – a disc, a purse, a sleeve link, a prayer book, postcards and photographs – were returned to his family.

8016 Private Leo Augustine Lahey – 12th Infantry Battalion

Patrick’s younger brother and Next of Kin was born on 2 November 1895. He enlisted in the A.I.F. on 3 January 1918, stating his trade as a labourer and naming his sister, Miss E Lahey, as his Next of Kin. He embarked on 28 February 1918 with the 27th Reinforcements to the 12th Battalion from Melbourne on board HMAT A71 Nestor. Leo returned safely to Australia on 23 July 1919.

In WW2, Leo again volunteered, serving as N109914 Corporal Leo Lahey with EC RR & GDD (Staff). He enlisted at Eastwood, NSW on 5 May 1941 and was discharged 22 October 1947. His Next of Kin was Maria Lahey.

Compiled from Military records and information provided by Susan Geason ( grand-niece of Patrick and Thomas Lahey and grand-daughter of Jane Geason (nee Lahey) & Urban Farley, great-nephew of Patrick and Thomas Lahey. Susan is also the grand-niece of Sprs. 6032 John Joseph Oakford, 1st Tunnelling Coy, and 3634A Francis Augustine Cashman, 1st Tunnelling Coy.