A commemoration service for Stuart Town soldier Private Thomas Cohen was held on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Private Cohen, born in Mookerawa, and sadly died in 1918 during World War One in France. Until late 2020, he was buried as an unidentified soldier, at a gravesite at Templeux-le-Guérard British Cemetery.
The commemoration service was organised by the Stuart Town ANZAC committee.
It was held at the Memorial Gates in Stuart Town where a bronze plaque was erected and unveiled in memory of Private Cohen.
Private Cohen married Mary Lee Cohen in 1908 and had a daughter, Lilian. Private Cohen was a fitter's assistant, and worked hard to provide for his family.
By 1916, Private Cohen and his family had moved to Stuart Town where he enlisted on 13 March, 1916, assigned to the 2nd Battalion.
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
After a few months of training in Australia, Private Cohen began the long journey to France in August 1916. They sailed on the HMAT Wiltshire, and more than two years after he was first enlisted, Private Cohen's unit was engaged in fighting in the Mont St Quentin area.
Private Cohen was alongside soldiers in the "Last Hundred Days" - the final major period of hostilities involving Allies, and among them, the Australian Corps, on the Western Front.
On 18 September 1918, Private Cohen was killed in action, less than two months before guns fell silent with the declaration of Armistice, and the end of the Great War.
He was 37-years-old.
Private Cohen is one of five previously unidentified soldiers whose identities have recently been discovered.
The other soldiers are Private George Thomas Littleboy, Private Henry McIntosh Hopping Mills, Sergeant Edwin Douglas Lillie and Lance Corporal Patrick Joseph O'Neill.
Last year, when the identity of Private Cohen was discovered, Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel Darren Chester said notations on original grave records had provided some details, however, further investigation had allowed the identity of the men to be conclusively proven.
"I would like to acknowledge the ongoing work of Fallen Diggers who have helped identify 32 Australian First World War soldiers," Mr Chester said.
"In consultation with the men's descendants, the Australian Army, Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Office of Australian War Graves will make arrangements to replace the previously unmarked headstones with new ones, bearing the soldiers' names and service details.
"It is sobering to think that more than 100 years on we are still identifying those who made the ultimate sacrifice as part of the First World War."