A soldier, yes, and a hero too,
He played a man's part through and through
His actions speak, though his voice is still
Forget him? No, we never will.

These words appeared in the Melbourne Age on the morning of Saturday October 27, 1917, a tribute to Thomas Miller McCluskey, who had died on active service in Passchendaele in Belgium 23 days earlier.

The death notice was inserted by the "loving father, brothers and sisters" of McCluskey, who was one of 10 children born in the town of Mooroopna on the banks of the Goulburn River, directly opposite the larger town of Shepparton.

Born in 1890, Thomas McCluskey, or 'Tammas' as he was known to family and friends, was a strapping young lad whose early football with Shepparton brought him to the attention of VFL scouts, and he was invited to train with Carlton, with whom he debuted as a 19-year-old late in the 1910 season.

McCluskey's first match was good enough for him to hold his place and five weeks later he was playing in a VFL Grand Final in just his fourth match.  Unfortunately it was a losing Grand Final and for reasons long forgotten, McCluskey moved to Fitzroy in 1911.

After spending a season with the Maroons, McCluskey joined Footscray in the VFA in 1912 and it was with the red, white and blue that Tom would forge his reputation as one of the game's great defenders.

Throughout 1912 Tom was renowned for his "strong, dashing game, which makes him so invaluable on the back line", and he played a big part in Footscray's rise up the ladder that season.

The Tricolours (the 'Bulldog' mascot had not yet been adopted) were defeated by Essendon in that year's Grand Final, but went one better in 1913 to claim their fifth Association premiership.

Described as a "tower of strength" the 180cm, 85kg McCluskey was a key to Footscray's success, and he was one of the best players in a thrilling one-point Grand Final win over North Melbourne.

Tom continued to show "great dash" in early part of the 1914 season but he was missing from the Grand Final side that was defeated by North Melbourne that year, and in 1915 he took on the role of playing coach at Yarraville.

In late 1916 McCluskey enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces and he sailed to England the following February on the HMAT Ballarat.  By September, Tom was in Passchendaele in Belgium, fighting alongside Private J.B. Timbs, who coincidentally had known Tom in Footscray.

In just a few short days McCluskey made a huge impression on Timbs as a "splendid soldier, both out of line and in the line".  In a letter to another Footscray friend, Bill "Ching" Harris (who had himself been a teammate of McCluskey), Timbs described how Tom handled a "bunch of Fritzes [German soldiers]":

"He dealt it out right and left, first with his bayonet and then with the butt end of his rifle, and I don't think there was much left when he was finished."

Timbs lost sight of Tom soon after, but caught up with him in a "shell hole" that evening, pleased with their victory.  As Timbs wrote to Harris, "I might tell you that it was a great victory and a few more miles of Belgium were regained."

But Tom McCluskey would never leave that shell hole, as Timbs explains in his letter:

"I was going to get into the same shell hole as they were in, but as it looked rather full I thought it best to get into another one, so I got into the next one about five yards away from them. About 6 o'clock that night [October 4, 1917] Fritz was shelling us pretty heavily.

"Tom was then standing in the shell hole talking to Smith, when either an 18-pounder or a whiz-bang landed right in between Smith and Tom. I saw the explosion its their shell hole, so I ran up to see if Tom were alright, and although I was there within a few seconds after the explosion, it was too late. Tom had been killed instantly. Smith was also dead.

"He fell just where, one second before, he stood in strength and youth as a perfect soldier and the pride of Australia's manhood.”

Private Timbs was able to make a cross out of "a couple of sticks and a piece of wire, and I left that on his grave with his identity disc tied on it".  But as the intense fighting continued, the cross was soon buried, and Thomas McCluskey's remains were lost with it.

Tom is one of many thousands of British and Empire soldiers with no known grave.

No doubt proud of his son's footballing achievements at Foostcray and his bravery in making the ultimate sacrifice, Tom's father, Thomas McCluskey Senior, later wrote that Tom "defended his country as he always fought to defend the goals and died with honour". 

Lest we forget Thomas Miller McCluskey.