We remember: Tom Dwyer

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A century on from the end of World War I we acknowledge their service …
Lest we forget.

Private Thomas Kelly Dwyer
Born: 1890 Pakenham. Killed in action: 12 March 1918 near Ypres, Belgium.
Enlisted: 20 November 1916 aged 26
Served: Western Front

Tom was the son of John and Mary Dwyer. On his mother’s side, he was the grandson of Michael Kelly of “Glana”, Pakenham, who settled in the district in the 1850s and his paternal grandfather Jeremiah Dwyer was also a local landholder.

Tom’s parents had a store, (probably at Old Pakenham where they had land themselves) though this ran into financial difficulties in the mid-1880s, after which John did contracting work.

Tom attended St Patrick’s Catholic School until the age of nine when the family moved to Western Australia, where his father had obtained work at the Claremont Insane Asylum, where Tom also worked for a period of time.

The family named its home in Stirling Road Claremont “Glana” after Mary Dwyer’s family home back in Pakenham.

Tom enlisted in the AIF in November 1916 and served as a signaller.

On 12 March 1918, he was killed outright when a German shell burst in B Company’s headquarters pillbox near Ypres Belgium.

After news of his death reached Australia, the W.A. Record newspaper in Perth described him as a “fine young Irish-Australian”.

This is an extract from Patrick Ferry’s book A Century After The Guns Fell Silent – Remembering the Pakenham District’s WWI Diggers 1914-18.
For more details on this and other profiles in the book, head to the website www.pakenhamww1.com