Thomas Flintoff

West Australian:
DEATH OF MR. T. FLINTOFF.
Well-known Dentist and Soldier.
Mr. Thomas Flintoff, of Second-avenue Mt Lawley, died at his home about 7.30 o'clock last night, after a severe illness that had lasted two weeks.
Born in Grafton, New South Wales on October 31 1876, the late Mr. Flintoff came to this State when aged about 20. A dentist by profession, he was interested in many aspects of civic life and in most sports. He was a member of the military branch of the Freemasons' Lodge, and was a foundation member of the Queen Victoria Lodge at Subiaco. eventually becoming the second master of that lodge. He leaves a widow and a son and daughter, both of whom are married.

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The location of Flintoff's surgery on the corner of William and High Streets directly across from the Town Hall is very familiar from photographs of the period: Flintoff used those premises 1905-1909 (post office lists).

The late Mr. Flintoff had been connected with the military forces since about 1900, when he was commissioned in the volunteers at Fremantle. In 1914 he held the rank of major In the 88th Infantry (Citizen Forces), and on joining the Australian Imperial Force, was posted to the 32nd Battalion. On arrival in Egypt he promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed to command the 47th Battalion, during service with which he was badly wounded in the body during the heavy fighting for Monquet Farm, on the Somme, in 1916. After a long period in hospital he was appointed to command a training camp in England, where he served until after the Armistice. He was awarded the Volunteer Officers’ Decoration. After his return to Australia he suffered considerably from war disabilities and about two years ago underwent a serious operation in the Repatriation Ward of the Perth Hospital. Colonel Flintoff was an active member of the Returned Soldiers’ League, and for some years was president of the Mt Lawley sub-branch. In his spare time he was an enthusiastic flower grower. The funeral will take place at the Karrakatta Cemetery at 3 o’clock this afternoon. (obit, West Australian, Wednesday 16 January 1935: 16)

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Find a Grave:
John and Maria Gray had two children, a boy, Johnnie, who died aged 6 months at sea on the way to Australia (Belfast Morning, Belfast, 25 February 1879: he had been born at his grandfather James Wickliffe's residence, Glenavy, Co. Antrim), and a girl, Elizabeth Minnie, b. 1879, Fremantle, d. 3 February 1958, Perth, b. Karrakatta. She married Thomas Flintoff.

Thomas Flintoff's parents were Thomas and Harriet Flintoff.

Pamela Mikus's Hons dissertation records that Thomas and Elizabeth Flintoff had four children: Eileen Wickliffe, b. d. 1903 aged 3 months, Thomas Wickliffe 1904-1989, Faith 1906-1986, m. Williams, and John Wickliffe 1914-1920, d. aged 5, pneumonia.

References and Links

Henderson, Margaret 1915, 'The dentists who unofficially kept our diggers going in WWI', Northern Star, 13 July.

Mikus, Pamela 2013, Graylands: The Evolution of a Suburb, Hons dissertation, Murdoch University (downloadable).

Find a Grave - for the details about Elizabeth Minnie (immediately above) - the details provided by which conflict with the obituary from the West Australian newspaper above.

The AIF Project page, UNSW, Canberra.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 9 May, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/flintoffthomas.html (it was last updated on 13 February, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.