TEDDER James George VD mid
public servant and citizen soldier  1862-1931

Born London on 27 December 1862 to George Tedder, tenor of some renown and Fanny Louisa McCurley. he started work as a clerk then migrated alone to Australia in 1880 due to ‘weak lungs’.  After staying at Araluen with his uncle Tom McCurley, in 1882 he joined the NSW Department of Telegraphs as telegraphist, his career prospering in the growing importance of this new technology to the Colony: he served in Young, Mudgee, Penrith and North Sydney.

Tedder began a lifelong interest in the citizen forces in the flush of enthusiasm of the 1885 Suakin expedition, joining the Mudgee ‘corps’ of 3 Inf Regt and being appointed 2Lt in 1891, and serving in that unit and 2 Inf Regt variously up and down as 2Lt, Lt and Capt. In the wave of patriotic fervour after the early British reverses of the Boer War he joined 2 NSW Mtd Rifles as a lieutenant troop commander, sailing in March 2001. The regiment became part of a mobile column during the guerrilla warfare stage, involved in denial and harassment tactics to crush the elusive mounted Boer commandos. On conclusion of the war it returned to Australia in May 1902, and as an acting captain he commanded the volunteer National Guard.

In 1903 he transferred to the Australian Army Service Corps as a captain, serving in 1 LH Sup Col, then as a major in 1910 commanding 1 LH Tpt and Sup Col, then 6 Coy, and also Area Officer for the Canterbury Training Area until the outbreak of World War 1. He joined the AIF commanding 3 Coy AASC 1st Division and sailed in the First Convoy to the war in Europe in October; the force was diverted to Egypt where the AIF became based and from which it was launched into Gallipoli. As the expected advance to Istanbul was frustrated, the main AASC units were not disembarked and were returned to Egypt where they were employed supporting the defence of the Suez Canal and support of the Senussi campaign in the Western Desert. He was mentioned in dispatches for this service.

When the divisions were moved to France in 1916 October, at fifty two he was considered too old for the rigours of front line service, but unlike many overage commanders who were returned to Australia, his experience was sufficiently well regarded to gain him employment in the AIF bases in UK where he was promoted major and appointed Assistant Director of Supplies and Transport at AIF HQ Tidworth and commander of the AASC Depot, ending the war as lieutenant colonel. Returning home in 1919 his service was terminated as medically unfit.

He married twice.  James and his wife, Mary Jane Shmith, whom he  married in Young in 1885, contributed to all the communities in  which they served as singers, musicians and later, as organisers of  musical events and theatre.  His skill as an organist saw him in constant demand from the local churches.

Five of his sons from his first marriage served in the World War 1, Lt Alma O'Neil Tedder AASC dying of pneumonia in 1919; his youngest son Lt-Col Norman Henry O'Neil Tedder RAE served in the 7th Division in World War 2. After the death of Mary, James married Ida Beileiter, nurse, and one of his two sons from this marriage, James Lionel O'Neil Tedder, served in the New Guinea Campaign.  One of his grandchildren Peter Norman O'Neil Tedder RAA served in Vietnam.

After his return from World War 1 he moved to Wamberal near Gosford as a citrus farmer. He passed away suddenly while on holiday in Turramurra in 1931.