Date of birth: 23/02/1895

Place of birth: Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom

Profession: Farmer

Country: Canada

Force: Canadian Expeditionary Force

Rank: Corporal

Service number: 136094

Enlistment date: 26/07/1915

Enlistment place: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Units:  —  Canadian Mounted Rifles, 1st Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 26/10/1917

Place of death: Wallemolen, Passendale, Belgium

Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Age: 22

British War Medal Medal

Military Medal Medal — 20/12/1916

Victory Medal Medal

In the morning of the 14th of October 1917 the Canadian Mounted Rifles 1st Battalion, part of the 8th Canadian Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division, marched from their bivouacs at Camblain-l'Abbé (Arras) to the town of Savy (Aisne) and entrained during the night to the Ypres area or to the village of Caestre in France near the Belgian border. The whole Battalion marched on the 15th to the town of Hazebrouck in Northern France, where the remained in bivouac till the 21st of October. On that day the Battalion moved to the forward area round Ypres.

After two days in support the Battalion moved to the frontlines on the 24th of October 1917, relieving the 1st Auckland Battalion. The 3rd Canadian Division occupied the lines from the hamlet of Wallemolen on the left with its right resting on the Ravebeek. The 8th Brigade was on the left of the Divisional front and the 9th Brigade on the right. The 8th attacked at 5.40 a.m. with the 4th Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles while the 1st Battalion Mounted Rifles was in support in the frontline.
The 4th Battalion Mounted Rifles, with C company of the 1st Mounted Rifles in support, managed to capture the German positions at Wolf Copse after arduous fighting. They advanced further and managed to secure a part of their objective. Once the 4th Battalion had formed a line A company of the 1st Mounted Rifles moved forward from the support line, the old frontline, which came under a heavy German barrage before the noon. D company moved forward from the support line during the afternoon, with B company still in support.

The fighting intensified during the day and the 8th Brigade was eventually forced back, falling back 300 yards. The 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles had lost fifteen other ranks and twelve men went missing. Corporal Thomas McMahon was one of the fifteen men of the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles who lost their lives in the attack round Wolf Copse, part of the Second Battle of Passchendaele, which was the last stage of the offensive. According to his records Corporal McMahon was killed in action while commanding his Company machine gun crews in support of the advancing men of the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles. He fell to a German sniper bullet when he was directing one of his crews to a new position.

McCarthy C., The Third Ypres Passchendaele. The Day-by-Day Account, (London, Arms & Armour Press, 1995), pg. 127-128. Sources used

Personnel Records of the First World War (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa (LAC) RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 7100 - 67). https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/search.aspx Sources used

War diaries: 51st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa (LAC), RG9-III-D-3, Volume number: 201, File number: 446201, File part: 5). https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng Sources used

War Graves Registers: Circumstances of Death (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa (LAC), RG 150, 1992-93/314; Volume Number: 158). https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1973/ Sources used

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1594322

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=67c0e12f-c0c9-410f-82b6-bf587236449a

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/5609565

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/1594322