My Dad has been searching for Decades - THOMAS

[maddys52]

Hi Sue, there is also this death in Australia in 1964 for a Leslie Joseph THOMAS mentioned in The Canberra Times 8 Sept 1964 on Trove

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/131747691?searchTerm=%22leslie%20joseph%20thomas%22&searchLimits=

I don't have any experience accessing ACT records, it doesn't seem like there's a search facility on their website, but someone more knowledgeable than me might be able to help.

[tssenior]

Thank you Maddys52, that is another link I will check out. Interesting that it doesn't mention any family names. I may have phone the cementery on Monday and ask what the grave stone says.

[StanleysChesterton]

I may have phone the cementery on Monday and ask what the grave stone says.

That newspaper announcement said he was living at the Veterans' Home. The Home will have probably kept all their archives, being an official organisation that's accountable.

[middlesbrough]

Hi,
Do you have the names of his parents. It may help for our search in Australia. What can you tell us about him? Date of birth , occupations etc.
Julie

[middlesbrough]

Sorry, scratch that I can see you already gave dob and parents name.

[Dundee]

The Veterans Home will likely not give you any info because of privacy, but the cemetery is a good idea as his service number should be recorded.

The death reg. and online cemetery listing give no further details.

You can search the death register here (click on the purple tab "Historic Death Index") and there are further details on obtaining a death cert in case you need them.

https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2094/related/1

There were at least five men using this name in full on Australian electoral rolls, three of whom served in WW2, but hopefully we should be able to start eliminating them.

Let us know how you go with the ACT man as I have another in mind who may have been the same age as your Leslie but I have lost him after 1961 (could even be the same one  ).

Debra 

[giblet]

Burial Details

THOMAS, LESLIE JOSEPH   
Cemetery  Woden   
Buried  Tuesday, September 8, 1964   
Allotment Index  H-EX-B-017

http://www.canberracemeteries.com.au/grave-search

[tssenior]

Thanks Giblet, that is the one I will be checking out next. Debra, I went through all the electoral rolls on Ancestry.com and there were a few with the same name but I think most of them had parents names attached. The one that didn't, but I have now eliminated was the one that lived in Campsie until 1943 and then got married in 1945. Was that the one you may have been thinking? He was listed on the electoral roll as a traveller, which got me excited, but then my Dad explained that in those days a door to door salesman was known as a traveller.  My Leslie's occupation in New Zealand prior to him disappearing was a Tramwayman (a tram driver).

[tssenior]

I just wanted to give any update on my search. Thank you to Maddys52 for the link to a Leslie Joseph Thomas who died in Canberra in 1964. I phoned the council and they have sent me a photo of this grave headstone, and the name and age is exactly as I was hoping. Our Leslie was born in 1894 and this man died in 1964 aged 70. The unusual thing though is that our Leslie's regimental war number is 10/544 and the one on the headstone is 10/725, which actually belongs to a man named Bernard Eyre Baxter, who was killed in action in 1915. I have contacted the funeral directors that were on the notice from the link you sent, and they are looking into it. I will also contact the home he lived in to see if they can shed any light on this man. Finally some good news!! Sue