Thomas John Skeyhill (10 January 1895 â 22 May 1932) was born to Annie and James Percy Skeyhill in Terang, Victoria. He was a signaler in the Australian Army in World War I. On 8 May 1915, during the advance at Cape Helles, he was blinded by an exploding Turkish shell; his sight was successfully restored in 1918. He ghostwrote an account about Alvin York, which was later made into a movie of the same name in 1941. He was killed in a plane crash at Barnstable Municipal Airport and was buried with military honors in West Dennis, Massachusetts, where he had a summer home.