The Toowoomba British Association honour board, unveiled in May 1918, listed both a Jas and a Jim Montgomery. Both abbreviations were forms of James. As Jim was listed as killed on the honour board, it can be assumed Jas was James Thomas Montgomery, who was alive at the time, though would later be killed in action.
Montgomery lived in Goombungee, northwest of Toowoomba, where he played half-back for the town’s soccer team before enlisting in September 1915.
He was assigned to the 26th Battalion and went on to be decorated for his service. Montgomery earned a Military Medal and a Meritorious Service Medal for his part in the attacks on Zoonebeke and Broodseinde Ridge at Ypres in October 1917. During these battles, he acted as a runner, taking messages and ammunition to various parts of the front line while under heavy shelling. The 26th Battalion was later reassigned to France, where Montgomery died in action on 17 October 1918 at Villers Bretonneux.
After the war, an honour board was unveiled in Goombungee for locals who had been killed in action. Montgomery’s name was among 29 local who had died. With his brother John having survived the war, and no other Montgomery being listed on the Goombungee board, the identity of his namesake Jim remains unconfirmed.