Tunneller

The World War of Colin Thompson

By: Allan A. Murray

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Mateship and tragedy on the Western Front.

This book in the Series, Their World War, is the story of an ‘ear wigger’.

Colin Thompson, from Newcastle, New South Wales, had a background in mining. In the early years of World War I he saw his family home empty as his sisters married and his brothers enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Following the enlistment of his brother-in-law, Robert Hughes, Colin also decided to join-up. His intention was to look after his younger sister’s husband.

After eight months of training together in Australia and England, both men were serving in Flanders as tunnellers on preparations for the 1917 Messines Offensive. Tragically, Robert was killed during this work near Hill 60, an outcome that Colin had tried to prevent. Colin’s unit, the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company, was then moved to the Belgian coast. After another significant engagement with the Germans near Nieuport-Bains, Colin fell sick and was evacuated back to England. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and returned to Australia where he died in 1922.

In Colin’s brief period as a tunneller he served through the two most dramatic incidents Australian tunnellers were to be involved in during World War I – the preparations for the Messines Offensive and the ‘Affair at Nieuport’.

This is a story that starts with a great act of mateship and ends in gut-wrenching tragedy for all the key players. The book also tells the story of how two men whose service, and cause of death, was so similar yet they have been remembered so differently.

The Foreword for this book was written by Allan's Duntroon classmate, Timothy J. Cook. Following a career as an Intelligence Corps officer in the Australian Army, his interest in history and family links to World War I led him to write the acclaimed book, Snowy to the Somme: A History of the 55th Battalion.