Thomas Price (soldier)

Thomas Caradoc Rose Price, CB, (21 October 1842 – 3 July 1911), often known as Colonel Tom Price, was an Australian soldier, acting commandant of the Commonwealth Military Forces in Victoria in 1902.

Early life

Price was born in Hobart the fourth son of John Price, fourth son of Sir Rose Price, 1st Baronet (see Price Baronets). He received some basic education in Hobart and from 1854 was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne. In December 1859 he entered the East India Military College, Addiscombe, England and was commissioned in 1861 in the Madras Infantry.

Military career

Price began twenty years of service in India with different regiments. He retired from the army in 1883 and returned to Australia. In 1885, having been given much discretion by Frederick Thomas Sargood , then minister for defence, re-organized the Victorian military forces. He originated the mounted rifles, afterwards called the light horse, and was largely responsible for the spread of the rifle club movement.

From 1900, Price saw action in South Africa in the Second Boer War in command of the second Victorian contingent and was mentioned in dispatches.

In 1902 he was assigned command of forces in Queensland until he retired, medically unfit, in 1904.

Late life

Price retired to Warrnambool, Victoria, his health having been affected by his services in India and South Africa, and lived there until his death in 1911. He was buried with military honours in the Melbourne General Cemetery. He married twice, firstly to Mary, daughter of Thomas Baillie and secondly to Emeline Shadforth, daughter of the Hon. R. D. Reid, who survived him with three sons and a daughter by the first marriage. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1900.

References

*C. D. Coulthard-Clark, ' [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110297b.htm Price, Thomas Caradoc Rose (1842 - 1911)] ', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, MUP, 1988, pp 289-290