Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

1914-15 Star (885 Pte. T. B. Pardoe. 2/Bn. A.I.F.) very fine £140-£180

Thomas Benton Pardoe was born in Ladysmith, South Africa, in 1879 and attested for the Australian Imperial Force at Randwick, New South Wales, on 28 August 1914. Posted to the 2nd Infantry Battalion Headquarters, he embarked from Sydney on 14 October 1914. He served with the Battalion at Gallipoli, and was wounded by a bullet to the head during the opening stages of the campaign, his medical record giving the date 25-30 April 1915. After a spell in hospital he recovered sufficiently to take part in the Battle of Lone Pine, 6-10 August 1915- of the 22 Officer and 560 other ranks from the Battalion who started the attack, 21 officers ands 409 other ranks were either killed or wounded.

After further service on the Western Front, including the Third Battle of Ypres, where he was subjected to the German mustard gas attack, Pardoe returned to Australia on 5 November 1918 ,and was discharged on 26 February 1919. He died of asthma in 1938, from which he had suffered since the Great War, an ailment almost certainly attributed to his having been exposed to mustard gas.

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