Thomas (Tom) James Murphy (SN 3200) was born in Millbrook, east of Ballarat, but enlisted in Melbourne on May 8th 1916. After a few weeks at the Ballarat depot, the 21 year old single farm labourer was posted to the 39th Battalion Reinforcements with which he embarked from Melbourne on board the Medic in December, bound for Plymouth. He spent much of the next fifteen months training in England, the last three months with the 4th Division Signal School, before being posted to France where he joined the 57th Battalion in April 1918. His overseas service appears to have passed relatively uneventfully, punctuated by several stays in hospital, and what may have been a premature celebration of the impending end of the war when he was reported "Absent Without Leave" for 24 hours a few days before the Armistice. He returned to Australia on board the Main in July 1919, disembarking in Melbourne in October, and was discharged on November 18th 1919.

While having a family connection to Ballarat, Tom is one of a number who served in the AIF but are not recognised with a tree in the Avenue.