by
Gerald A. Moloney
Thomas
John Skeyhill (1895-1932), soldier and lecturer, was born on 10 January 1895 at
Terang, Victoria, son of James Percy Skeyhill, driver and later aerated waters
factory manager, and his wife Annie, née Donnelly. Both parents were native
born of Irish extraction. Tom was educated at the local state school and from
1902 at St Mary's Convent School, Hamilton. At 14 he became a telegraph
messenger at Hamilton and later a telephonist. A clever reciter, he was successful
in local elocution competitions and was a debater with the Hibernian Society.
Enlisting
in the 8th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, in August 1914, Skeyhill
embarked from Melbourne in December and landed at Anzac Cove as a signaller on
25 April 1915. On 8 May, during the advance at Cape Helles, he was blinded by
an exploding Turkish shell. He was invalided back to Melbourne in October and
later was officially welcomed home at Hamilton Town Hall.
Skeyhill
had been composing verse, some of which was published in the London, Cairo and
Melbourne press. In November 1915 he appeared at the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne,
in full Gallipoli kit, reciting his compositions. His Soldier Songs from Anzac,
published in December, sold 20,000 copies in four months. For two years
Signaller Skeyhill, 'the blind soldier poet', toured Australia, lecturing and
reciting, raising funds for the Red Cross Society and appearing on recruiting
platforms. He was discharged on 28 September 1916.
In
December 1917 Skeyhill left on a lecturing tour of North America. He became a
sensation—at Carnegie Hall, New York, Theodore Roosevelt praised him as 'the
finest soldier speaker in the world'. Under osteopathic treatment he recovered
his sight in Washington in 1918. Claiming that he was then rejected as unfit by
British recruiting authorities, he was appointed war lecturer with the United
States forces. He visited the war zones and on return lectured throughout the
U.S.A. in aid of the Liberty Loan. After the war he became associated with the
Pond Lyceum and Chautauqua lecture circuits.
Commissioned
by the American Affiliated Lecture Bureau in 1920 to visit Russia and Eastern
Europe, he was refused entry to the Soviet Union but illegally went to
Petrograd (St Petersburg). He was unimpressed by conditions he found there and
subsequently lectured on 'Communism with the lid off'. In September 1921 he
returned to Australia for a six-week lecture tour of Victoria and New South
Wales. In 1926 Ohio University, U.S.A., awarded him an honorary degree.
In
1919 Skeyhill had published in New York ‘A Singing Soldier’ and he later wrote
plays, including ‘Passing Shadows’, ‘Moon Madness’ and the successful ‘The
Unknown’, and a biography of Sergeant Alvin York, which was filmed in 1941.
Skeyhill was killed in an air accident at Hyannis, Massachusetts, on 22 May
1932. He was survived by his wife Marie Adele, a New York actress, and by their
daughter Joyce. Though he had lived in New York, he was buried with a military
funeral at West Dennis, Massachusetts, where he had had a summer home.
Select
Bibliography
P. Hay (ed), Meeting of Sighs (Warrnambool, Vic, 1981)
Theatre Magazine, 1 Aug 1916
New York Times Book Review, 23 Dec 1928
Reveille (Sydney), July 1932
Hamilton Spectator, 20 Oct 1915, 13 June 1918, 13, 15, 22,
25, 27 Oct 1921
Sydney Morning Herald, 27, 28 July 1916, 4 Feb, 6 May, 12
Oct 1918, 13 Dec 1919, 11 Mar, 21, 22, 23 Apr, 25 June 1921, 27 Nov 1926, 25
May 1932
San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Apr 1918
Terang Express, 27 Sept 1921
New York Times, 12, 14 Oct 1928, 23 May 1932
Herald (Melbourne), 24 May 1932
Argus (Melbourne), 25 May 1932
Bulletin, 1 June 1932
Age (Melbourne), 10, 20 Mar 1969.
Sources:
Pages:
Pinterest: http://uk.pinterest.com/dominicsheridan/
No comments:
Post a Comment