The Museum of Perth chronicles the social, cultural, political and architectural history of Perth.
Brothers, 28th Battalion Privates Thomas Joseph (front right) and Patrick John Fogarty (front left)
Thomas was Cornelius 'Con' and Mary Fogarty's oldest son, born in Strahan, Tasmania in 1892. The family soon came to WA, where Patrick was born in Northam in 1894. Both boys attended Christian Brothers College in Kalgoorlie and, by 1915, both were working for the railways. Thomas was 23, just a smidge under 6 feet tall and a fairly solid build at around 80kgs. Patrick was 21, a clerk, six foot 1 inch tall, and a more solid 85kgs. Patrick had served three years with the militia, and was still serving.
They enlisted together, with John Shepherd (back left), in Kalgoorlie on 7 September 1915. Both were assigned as signallers with the 28th Battalion. On Saturday 30 October Tom, Patrick, John, and an unknown friend (back right) had their photo taken at the Dease Studio, 117 Barrack Street.
The brothers embarked at Fremantle on the Medic on 18 January 1916 and arrived in Egypt on 16 February, as Australian troops prepared for deployment to the Western Front. Five weeks later they disembarked in Marseilles.
Tom’s war was a short one. After writing home to his family on 28 July he joined his unit in France on 2 August. He was then listed as missing in action during the nightmare that was Pozieres between 4-6 August 1916.
His family was notified in September. His father, Con, expressed the hope Tom was a prisoner of war in Germany and asked the Red Cross to investigate. The Red Cross unearthed many witnesses with conflicting testimony, but all were consistent: Tom had been killed in action.
28th Battalion Private Henry Leggett said Tom was sitting with him at a place called Copse Avenue on 5 August. “While he was talking, sitting in this position, he suddenly stopped speaking and the fellow he was talking to remarked to me on his silence. Then we saw that he was dead, shot through the back of the neck. It must’ve been an instantaneous death.”
28th Battalion Sergeant George Walker, who knew Tom from Perth, had a different account. He said Tom was with him and others when they captured a German trench. One of several who volunteered to go back for more ammunition, “poor Tom was killed” on the return trip.
28th Battalion Private Tulley’s account was different again; “His side was carried off by shrapnel when going over the parapet. I saw him hit and on the return in the morning I saw the dead body.”
Others said he was hit in the back of the head by a splinter from a high explosive shell and killed on impact.
Tom's uncle, 16th Battalion Sergeant Joseph Ambrose heard his nephew had been killed and confirmed Tom's death. In December Tom was officially declared killed in action. Although Joseph was told Tom had been buried immediately, his body was never recovered and his name is on the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. Ever remembered, his mourning family placed memorial notices for him for years.
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Patrick had a very different war. He arrived in France suffering severe cardiac problems - DAH - a disordered action of the heart. Instead of joining his unit with Tom, he spent the next few months in hospital in England. He was discharged to Home Service in December and, in April 1917, transferred to the Postal Corps. Remaining in England and presumably recovered, in February 1918 he attended the Australian School of Musketry, emerging in March with “a fair working knowledge of [the] Lewis Gun."
In May 1918 he was finally sent overseas to France to rejoin the 28th Battalion at the rank of lance corporal.
On the morning of 11 August 1918 during the attack on Framerville, near Amiens, Patrick and another signaller, Charles Coleman, “passed through a gap in the line during the mist and came upon an enemy strong point while carrying their signalling gear, and attacked the post, capturing 12 prisoners and 4 machine guns."
For his actions that day, and for bravery in the field, he was awarded the Military Medal.
On 6 September he was promoted to temporary corporal, and was soon sent on a course at the Signalling School, France, rejoining his unit on the front lines on 3 November just a week before the Armistice was signed.
Patrick returned to Australia on Castralia, disembarking in Fremantle in May 1919. In time, he resumed his work with the railways.
On 19 October 1920 at St Thomas’ Church, Claremont, Patrick married "pretty and popular” Claremont girl, Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Dwyer. They made their home and raised their family at 69 Grosvenor Road, North Perth.
In the 1950s they moved to 77 Bessell Avenue, Como, where Patrick died on 21 September 1973 aged 79. Kathleen died four years later, aged 82.
Photographed at the Dease Studio, 117 Barrack Street Perth WA
Image courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia: 108255PD