Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

21/09/1914

Place of Enlistment

Queanbeyan NSW

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Tuggeranong ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Peppercorn Station NSW (previously Tuggeranong ACT)

School(s) Attended

Tuggeranong (Tuggranong) School, Tharwa School

Occupation

Station manager / stockman

Next of Kin

Son of Thomas Philip and Mary Maria Maxwell of McQuoid St, Queanbeyan NSW

Burial Place

Palestine 3 Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Service Number

318

Final Rank

Sergeant

Final Unit

7 Light Horse Regiment AIF

Died (killed in action) in an air attack near Jericho, Palestine on 7 May 1918 aged 31 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 5, Canberra ACT
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Tom Maxwell was probably born at Tuggeranong homestead where his mother worked during the 1880s. He and his brothers went to school at Tuggeranong and Tharwa. The Maxwell family have a long association with the mountain region of the ACT and at the time of his enlistment Maxwell was overseer at Peppercorn Station on the upper Murrumbidgee (on the western side of the Brindabellas) probably working for the McDonalds of Uriarra. Unusually, at his medical, he was found to have recently been shot through the left side and in the arms. He served with the 7th Light Horse Regiment on Gallipoli (from May 1915), in the Sinai at Romani and in Palestine at Gaza and Es Salt, achieving the rank of Sergeant. He was killed on 7 May 1918 by a bomb dropped during an air raid near Jericho in the Jordan valley. He was the brother of Edward and Michael Maxwell who also served in the 7th Light Horse Regiment in World War, and of Norman and Albert Maxwell who served in World War2. Whilst in Egypt he met an Australian nurse, Ellen Thompson. She returned to Australia pregnant and their son, Arthur, was raised by Tom Maxwell's parents as if he were their own child.

Description - height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 154 pounds, chest 37-38 inches, dark complexion, grey eyes, black hair, Catholic, had been shot through the left side and shot in the arms.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
Narelle O'Rourke, 'A Country Nurse and Midwife', 1989
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Matthew Higgins, 'A Century of Learning: Tharwa Primary School 1899-1999', Canberra 1999
Queanbeyan Age - 12 January 1912, 16 November 1915, 25 January 1916, 11 December 1917
Photograph of Maxwell's grave, Canberra & District Historical Society (photograph 1497)
Maxwell collection, Canberra & District Historical Society
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Information provided by Carmel Koenig (granddaughter)