31888 Signalman Thomas Lester Johnston, (-27/11/1941). "all lines were now cut"

Thomas Johnston was working as a linesman when he enlisted in the army so it would be no surprise to him that he was given a similar job in uniform. A signalman's job was usually a safe one, with less time spent inharm's way than other soldiers.  However, in the desert, situations could develop with surprising speed, as recorded in the Official History of Divisional Signals:

Early next morning, the 27th — a critical day in the affairs of 5 Brigade — the line to 22 Battalion in the north failed and Headquarters 13 Corps could not be raised either by line or wireless. It was learnt later that Corps had suddenly moved westwards without telling 5 Brigade of its intentions. Shortly after 7 a.m. a message from Divisional Cavalry reported forty enemy tanks approaching the Brigade Headquarters' position from the direction of Bardia. A bare twelve minutes later shells from the enemy armour were falling in the area. Lieutenant McFarlane's truck and K Section's stores truck were both hit and burnt out. All lines were now cut, except for the local circuits in the headquarters' area, and wireless communication with Headquarters 13 Corps was still not restored.

The enemy armour had approached to within 2500 yards and was pouring in a devastating fire, which was increased by enemy artillery and machine guns coming into action from behind the crescent-shaped line of tanks. About a quarter to ten the tanks came in and overran the headquarters, which was by now an area of blazing vehicles. Behind the armour came infantry carried in half-tracked troop-carriers, and the fight was over. Guns on both sides were now silent, 5 Brigade's because they were all disabled and their crews killed or wounded, and the enemy's because the tanks were now right on the target area.

All K Section's transport and the signal office were burnt out, but no one was killed. Only one man, Signalman Laskey, was wounded. As the German infantry swarmed in among the now silent and stationary tanks, the men were rounded up, counted and disarmed.

F Section, which had come in to the Brigade Headquarters' area with Headquarters 5 Field Regiment the day before, when the probability of a heavy enemy attack on the area had become a certainty, fared less fortunately than K Section. Not all of its transport was burnt out, but every vehicle was disabled. Line communication to the guns, however, was maintained from the signal office truck right until the end. At 8 a.m. OC F Section, Second-Lieutenant Stevenson, sustained severe wounds from which he died about two hours later. The rest of F Section, with the exception of Signalmen Leary and Mitchell, who were then with B Troop 27 Battery of 5 Field Regiment in the Capuzzo-Sollum area with their wireless detachment, were taken prisoner and marched off to Bardia that same day with the rest of the captives from Headquarters 5 Brigade.

Thomas is not mentioned in the Official History.  That can be put down to the "fog of war."  For some time he was listed as wounded, then "died of wounds."

Hakataramea Cemetery.