Thomas Patrick Lehane arrived in Queensland from Kilkenny, Ireland, as a five-year-old in 1906 and later became a forgotten Anzac. I told a version of this story on West Bremer Radio.

Thomas and his mother Bridie went to live at Glenore Grove near Forest Hill in the Lockyer Valley. His mother married for a second time, and exactly nine months later she gave birth to a half-brother for Thomas. Sadly, Thomas’s stepfather had a record of drunkenness.

But two of Thomas’s uncles were bakers at Clifton on the Darling Downs so he got an apprenticeship as a baker.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Thomas tried to enlist in the Australian army but got rejected. He tried again in 1916 when he could have been as young as fifteen years old, so he put his age up and this time got in.

He went to France where he joined the 49th Infantry Battalion (Brisbane recruits in 1916 pictured above) where his service was perhaps best forgotten. He was wounded twice, AWL (Absent Without Leave) three times, and convicted of insubordination once.

Thomas returned to his life as a baker. In 1931 he married Agnes at the Glenore Grove catholic church and they went to live at Forest Hill.

In 1939 the Second World War was declared. Thomas was a bit on the old side so this time when he went to enlist, he lowered his age and got in. But again his service wasn’t all that memorable. He went AWL, fell asleep on sentry duty, left his post without permission, and was diagnosed with acute alcoholism. Thomas was discharged after just seven months.

Back home with his wife and children, he wasn’t all that good at that either. They had drifted between Forest Hill, Grandchester, West End, Camp Hill, East Ipswich, Rockhampton, Windsor, and Rosalie.

In 1942, with Australia on the brink of invasion by the Japanese, Thomas’s children were evacuated to Chinchilla. Thomas got a job as a senior porter at the Canberra Hotel on the corner of Ann and Edward streets in Brisbane.

The Canberra was Brisbane’s most prestigious hotel and it was a good place for him to be. You see, Thomas was an acute alcoholic, and the Canberra was a dry hotel owned and run by the Queensland Temperance League – which today is known as Drug ARM – and they decided to give him a go.

But it didn’t work out. Late one night he was found drunk in the main lounge and two porters had to help him into a taxi. Another time he ended up in ward 16 at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. He lost the job.

In the meantime, his wife Agnes also got work there as a waitress. She became very friendly with some American soldiers, who by this time were in Brisbane in their thousands having turned the place into a garrison town.

Thomas had what he hoped to be his last drink in September 1943. But it didn’t help his marital situation, because his wife Agnes met a man while working at the Australian Hotel and began an illicit love affair.

After the inevitable divorce, Agnes married the man. She never told her family about her second marriage, including two of her cousins who were catholic priests. One of those cousins in 1945 narrowly escaped a manslaughter conviction following a head-on collision outside of Warwick.

In any case, Thomas also married for a second time. He passed away in Brisbane in 1967 at around sixty-seven years old, which was a typically unremarkable age for First World War veterans. He’s buried at Nudgee.

But the tragedy for Thomas Lehane doesn’t end there. That’s because he’s endured injustices in three places for over a century.

The First World War’s embarkation roll at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra doesn’t have his name right, they spelt it incorrectly “Lenane”.

And what’s worse, his two home memorials at both Forest Hill and Laidley, even they have it wrong, misspelling his name in yet another way “Lahane”.

I’m a sucker for lost causes and am onto getting all these things fixed. We should accurately honour all those who served to preserve our freedom, including this old Anzac who is probably totally forgotten about anyway.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD LIVE ON RADIO.

Photo credits:
Members of 49th Battalion before departing Brisbane, 1916 – Australian War Memorial P12347.003.
St Therese’s Catholic Church, Glenore Grove, 2006 – Wikipedia Commons.
Canberra Hotel, Brisbane, 1941 – State Library of Queensland.
Thomas Patrick Lehane grave at Nudgee, Brisbane – Find a Grave added by FP McLoughlin 2021.
Laidley War Memorial Gates – Harold Peacock 2023.