[Index]
Brett Stephen TOMBS (1965 - 1996)
SAS soldier
Children Self + Spouses Parents Grandparents Greatgrandparents
Living
Living
Brett Stephen TOMBS (1965 - 1996)

+

Living
Living Willliam TOMBS



Elsie JONES



Living John Douglas ELWORTHY (1898 - 1942) Arthur Ernest ELWORTHY (1866 - 1935)
Leah Christian ISAAC (1865 - 1930)
Heather Lillian Jane CRAIG (1903 - 1995) Alfred Nicholas CRAIG (1882 - 1970)
Ethel Lilian MCGANN ( - 1960)
b. 18 Feb 1965 at Te Kuiti, New Zealand
m. Living Living or Recently Deceased
d. 12 Jun 1996 at Townsville, Queensland, Australia aged 31
Parents:
Siblings (3):
Children (2):
Events in Brett Stephen TOMBS (1965 - 1996)'s life
Date Age Event Place Notes Src
18 Feb 1965 Brett Stephen TOMBS was born Te Kuiti, New Zealand
12 Jun 1996 31 Brett Stephen TOMBS died Townsville, Queensland, Australia Note 1
Note 1: Blackhawk helicopter crash at Townsville.
Personal Notes:
Brett Stephen was born at Te Kuiti on 18 Feb 1965. He was educated at Gunnedah and Port Macquarie where he did his HSC in 1983. After moving to Armidale with his parents, Brett tried various jobs, finally joining the Army in January 1986. He served in 5/7 RAR Holsworthy until 1988 when he became a member of the elite SAS (Special Air Service) Regiment based at Perth, WA.
As a highly trained member of the SAS, he was skilled in free fall parachuting, rock climbing and abseiling and enjoyed these activities. The family liked camping and bush-walking. Corporal Brett Tombs was 2/ic of his troop and lived at Duncraig in Western Australia where the S.A.5 unit was based. Brett had decided to leave the crack regiment to have more time with his young family and to start a university degree. He was awaiting finalisation of his papers when he was tragically killed in the Blackhawk helicopter crash at Townsville which took the lives of 18 of the unit's best men on 12 June 1996.
In its leading article, the Sydney Daily Telegraph of 14 June called these men 'Tragic Heroes of Freedom' who lost their lives in the service of their nation.
"We should keep that fact in mind, for we are rich in the possession of such dedicated and selfless people. As members of the military they had accepted without hesitation the highest contract of service - the willingness to lay down their lives for their country and their countrymen."
"While we weep for their deaths,
we will remember them forever with pride."
Source References:
2. Type: Book, Abbr: Devon to Downunder, Title: Devon to Downunder, Auth: Bettie Elworthy, Publ: Bookbound, Date: 1997
- Reference = 266 (Name, Notes)

This public tree has about 60,100 people. Every person in the tree is related by birth or marriage to at least one other person in the tree - no strays. The people in the tree come mainly from four projects.
  1. My family tree. The original project begun about 1998. ID numbers less than about 6,000
  2. Canberra and Queanbeyan Pioneers. The next 30,000 begun about 2004. Sourced almost entirely from HAGSOC's excellent 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan'. The project began when I decided to add siblings, spouses and parents for a relation with an entry in the Register. 12 years work.
  3. Wagga Pioneers. I moved to Wagga and thought I would extend the Queanbeyan project by adding people from Wagga Wagga & District Family History Society's 'Pioneers of Wagga Wagga and District'. About 10,300 people added over about a year.
  4. Tumut Valley Pioneers. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, I decided to extend the above projects by adding pioneers of the Tumut Valley. Initial sources were Snowden's 'Pioneers of the Tumut Valley' and 'Relict of ... Lives of Pioneering Women of Tumut and District'. Excellent references published by Tumut Family History Group. I've also added material from newspapers of the time - especially, death records, obituaries and weddings from 'Tumut and Adelong Times'. This project is in its early stage and might take a few years. I plan to extend to the upper Monaro (Adaminaby, Kiandra, Cooma, Jindabyne).
I upload new information to this website about every 3 months. My motivation for these projects is to provide public information for people seeking to trace ancestors and what became of them. Much of the information I provide can be difficult to find.
If you find errors - anything incorrect (dates, places, wrong parents, wrong children), and you have evidence, I would love to fix them. Or, if you have information that would extend my projects, do not hestiate to contact me on the email link below. I do not publish information on living people - which means I'm not much interested in people born after about 1920, and I usually distrust material from before about 1770 without extremely good sources.
g.bell@bigpond.net.au
When you click the mail address abouve, if it does not open your email app, copy the address on the screen.
Geoff Bell, September 2020