Tom Skeyhill Explained

Thomas John Skeyhill (1895–1932) was born in 1895 to Annie and James Percy Skeyhill in Terang, Victoria. He was a signaler in the Australian Army in World War I. On 8 May 1915, during the advance at Cape Helles, he was blinded by an exploding Turkish shell; his sight was successfully restored in 1918. He ghostwrote an account about Alvin York, which was later made into a movie of the same name in 1941. He was killed in a plane crash at Barnstable Municipal Airport and was buried with military honors in West Dennis, Massachusetts, where he had a summer home.

“Halt! Thy tread is on heroes' gravesAustralian lads lie sleeping below:Just rough wooden crosses at their headsTo let their comrades know.

They'd sleep no better for marble slabs,Nor monuments so grandThey lie content, now their day is doneIn that far-off foreign land.” — Tom Skeyhill

Further reading

• Brownrigg, Jeff . Sep 2007 . From Anzac Cove to Hollywood : Alvin C. York's role in the career of Tom Skeyhill . National Library of Australia News . 17 . 12 . 7–10 . https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20120119224400/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/131760/20120120-0944/www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2007/sep07/sep07news.html . dead . 2012-01-19 .