Name: Thomas Robert Alexander Johnston
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Date of birth: December 21, 1899
Place of birth: Wagga
Link to Wagga: Birthplace
Date of enlistment: February 12, 1918
Age at enlistment: 18 years 11 months
Occupation: Farmer
Religion: Presbyterian
Next of kin: Mother, Margaret Johnston, ‘Carwilla’
Battalion or Regiment: 35th Field Artillery
Battlefields: France
Outcome: Returned to Australia, July 23, 1919
THOMAS was the son of Andrew and Margaret Charlotte (née Macauley).
A farmer by occupation, he was almost 19 years old when he enlisted with the 35th Field
Artillery Reinforcements in the late stages of World War I.
His permanent address at the time of enlisting was ‘Carrwilla’, The Gap, via Wagga.
The battalion sailed from Sydney aboard the ‘Orontes’, arriving in Liverpool on August 11, 1918.
As a result of the Armistice being signed on November 11, 1918, Thomas did not see any active service on the battlefield.
He did, however, spend time in France, leaving England on November 28, 1918.
On May 5, 1919, Thomas returned to England, before embarking on HT ‘Suevic’, bound for Australia, where he was then discharged.
After the war, Thomas became an estate agent, forming his own company in partnership with a fellow veteran Victor George Saunders.
The partnership was dissolved in 1925.
In 1928, Thomas was elected as an alderman with Holroyd Council, and ran again for election the following year.
After several years living in Sydney, Thomas appears to have moved back to the Riverina, settling in Leeton.
There, he worked for a time as a channel attendant.
