Like many other returned soldiers, throughout the remainder of his life Thomas refused to talk about his experiences during the war despite being decorated with a Military Medal.
A box of approximately 100 letters from Thomas were found years after he and his parents had died during a restoration of his parent's home and these shed some light on what actually happened. They were originally discovered, read and typed by Thomas' grandchild, Thomas Quinn and his wife Deb into a book of limited publication. A copy of the documents are now part of the Australian War Memorial Museum. The originals remain at Mount Bryan.
This is an electronic version of those letters, however they are based on the book prepared by Thomas Quinn Jnr, not the originals. They are presented here, almost 100 years after they were written, as a broadly-accessible version of this story of war time through the eyes of a young Mid-North South Australian farmer.
The blog template has been adjusted to remove post dates and identities (thanks Kirsten for your help with this) - so the focus could be on the author of the letters rather than the interpreter. However, any comments can be made to me at DianaMQuinn@gmail.com.
