SERVICE PERSON RESEARCH
SERVICE PERSON DETAILS
Service Person’s
Name
Rank
Service Number
Regiment/Unit or
Ship or Squadron
Thomas Michael Wixted
Private
7862
15th Battalion
Date of Birth
22 November 1889
Place of Birth
Brisbane, QLD
Family Details
Age at Enlistment
Place of Enlistment
Married to Margaret Wixted (formerly Margaret Rowan)
18
Brisbane QLD
Date of Death
15 October 1958
Place of Death
Brisbane QLD
Cemetery or
Memorial Name
Grave or Memorial
Number
South Brisbane Cemetery
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial/South Brisbane Cemetery Plot 3
PHOTO:
SERVICE PERSON’S STORY/EULOGY:
Prepared by Raphael Wixted
Thomas Michael Wixted was a man of duty. His duty to his country compelled him to enlist; his duty to his
wife compelled him to delay doing so until they had a child. After the death of his 9 month old daughter,
Margaret, in 1916, Thomas waited until the birth of his first son in September 1917 to embark for Europe.
His arrival in Villers-Bretonneux was in the midst of the conflict, and before being wounded in his right
wrist in 1918 he had survived many close calls. He would go on to tell my father and his siblings of the time
his life was spared by a German pilot when he stood his ground and squared upon the plane, his 303, or the
many times his luck kept him just far enough away from landing artillery fire. After losing the function of his
right hand he was no longer capable of fulfilling his role as a Bren (light machine) gunner, and was sent to
recover in Manchester. Upon being discharged from hospital he spent his remaining leave visiting the
family’s ancestral home of Scotland, before returning to London to be redeployed. He was in London on 11
November 1918 on the day peace was declared. Upon hearing this news, he joined the swarm of returning
Australian servicemen, arriving home in Brisbane later that year. Over the coming decade, their family grew
from three to ten. The last addition, Edward, would later marry Barbara; they, in turn would bring into the
world a second Thomas Wixted, my own father. The fragility of this line is clear to see. Thomas Michael
Wixted might have perished like so many others in that year, and if he had neither me nor my family would
be here. He died an old man, on 15 October 1958: an old man with a legacy, a family, and the knowledge
that he had fulfilled his duty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Find a Grave 2010, Thomas Michael Wixted
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=48736243 (accessed 20 February 2015)