Thomas Henry Herket (b. 1894, New Zealand, d 1942 on Montevideo Maru) was working as a driver when he enlisted in Sydney on 10 August 1915. He was part of the 11th Reinforcements to the 2nd Battalion and was later attached to the 53rd Battalion. By mid-1916 he was serving on the Western Front in the Battle of Fromelles. On 20 July Herket was wounded and taken a POW at Fleur Baix, Armentieries, and interned in a German POW camp at Festings-Lazaretti. He underwent 10 operations on his wounded right ankle during his captivity and in January 1918 was transferred to Holland before being sent to England. On returning to Australia, Herket settled in Sydney.
Following the war Herket worked on and off as an accountant on several NSW pastoral properties before applying for work in 1939 with the Department of Treasury as an agriculture agent for the Australian Government in New Guinea. Tom Herket is listed as one of the 209 civilians who were killed on the Montevideo Maru when this Japanese ship was sunk by an American submarine on 1 July 1942. (Sources : Australian War Memorial records).
Many of the civilians who died on the Montevideo Maru in 1942 served during WWI. There is a portrait of Tom Herket in the First World War Gallery: Western Front 1916. The drawing, charcoal and pastel over pencil on paper, was done by Hilda Rix Nicholas, probably around 1920 when Nicholas was living in Mosman, Sydney.
If you are a relative of Thomas Herket could you please email.
The following article was included in Memorial News, PNG Kundu, December 2021
https://pngaa.org/article/memorial-news-4/
Thomas Henry Herket
When Tom Herket enlisted in Sydney in August 1915, he would not have known that he would be one of the 5,500 Australian war casualties from a 24-hour battle on the Western Front during WWI (considered the most tragic event in Australian history) and one of over 1,000 Australians who would be killed in Australia’s worst maritime disaster which occurred during WWII.
Thomas Henry Herket enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 10 August 1915 at Sydney. He was attached to the 2nd Battalion, 11th Reinforcement. His age was stated as twenty-one years and one month however he was more likely eighteen years of age. Tom’s occupation was listed as a driver (chauffeur). He was born in Auckland, New Zealand.
By mid-1916 Herket was attached to the 53rd Battalion, which took part in the Battle of Fromelles on 19–20 July 1916. Almost 2,000 Australian soldiers were killed or died from their wounds. Around 400 Australian soldiers were taken prisoner by the Germans. Tom Herket was one of these POWs. Australian Red Cross records stated that he had a gunshot wound in his right foot and left ring finger.
Tom Herket returned to Australia on 5 January 1919 and, after many operations on his right ankle, he was medically discharged from the AIF on 14 June 1920.
Tom was able to find some work as an accountant on several NSW pastoral properties. In 1939 he applied to the Department of Treasury to work as an agricultural inspector for the Australian Government in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. Australian WWI Veterans with an honourable discharge were given preference for these government positions, and his appointment was then confirmed.
Tom was one of many Australian WWI Veterans who worked in Rabaul and the New Guinea islands between the two world wars. When Japan entered the war in early December 1941 most of the expatriate women and children in Rabaul and the New Guinea islands were evacuated to Australia. However, the Australian men were instructed to remain in Rabaul and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.
The Australian Government knew that the small army garrison at Rabaul, Lark Force, would not have been able to withstand any significant Japanese armed forces that wanted to take Rabaul and the New Guinea islands. This was stated in a cable that the Australian Government sent to Washington on 12 December 1941 where the Lark Force at Rabaul were referred to as ‘hostages to fortune’.
So, when Japan invaded Rabaul on 23 January 1942 Rabaul quickly fell to the enemy armed forces and most of the Australians in Rabaul and the New Guinea islands soon became POWs and civilian internees, many of whom lost their lives.
The Japanese prisoner of war records state that Tom Herket was captured at Kokopo, which is not far from Rabaul on the New Guinea island of New Britain. These records also show that he was one of the fifty-three WWI veterans who became an internee in Rabaul, and died on the Japanese prisoner transport ship MS Montevideo Maru when it was sunk by the American submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of the Philippines on 1 July 1942. A list of names is on the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society’s website at https://memorial.org.au/Electronic/WW1.htm
None of the prisoners survived the sinking of the MS Montevideo Maru. So ended the life of Tom Herket—a POW during WWI and a civilian internee during WWII.
Thomas Herket’s name is on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s WWII Commonwealth Civilian War Dead list for the MS Montevideo Maru. This list of names of Australian civilians who died on the MS Montevideo Maru is also in the Book of Remembrance, Vol. 7, in St George’s Chapel, which is near the western door of Westminster Abbey, London.
On 1 July 2012 the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Memorial in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial was unveiled by the Australian Governor General, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO, and her speech is on the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society’s website at https://memorial.org.au/About/BryceSpeech.htm
Also, on the seventieth anniversary of the sinking of the MS Montevideo Maru the National Archives of Australia released the lists of the men who died on the Japanese ship. These lists were from the prisoner of war records that the Japanese Government gave to the Australian Government earlier in the year.
Patrick Bourke
‘A Digger’—Portrait of Tom Herket, by Hilda Rix Nicholas
Further information at https://fromelles.info/soldiers/3309-private-thomas-henry-herket/