Military History

Theatre of War	Medals	Commonwealth War Grave or Memorial
France and Flanders	1914-15 Star, British War & Victory Medals	Ypres Memorial
Arrived in Theatre	Medal Citation (if app)	SWFHS Area Memorials
21 Dec 1914	~	Stoneleigh
Action, Battle or Other Reason Killed	Date and Place Enlisted	Other War Memorials
Battle of Loos (Bellewaarde)	On or before 4 Aug 1914 at Shrewsbury	~
Place of Death	Previous Regiments or Units
near Ypres

Circumstances Leading to Death (Normally from War Diary)           

Thomas is listed as being killed in action of 25 Sep 1915. The 25th of September 1915 was the opening day of the Battle of Loos and the Battalion took part in a diversionary attack on Bellewaarde Ridge. The war diary for the day is transcribed below.

Ypres – 25/9/15: 1:00 am the Battalion was in position in the trenches as follows: A Coy H.13&14; D Coy H15a & H16a; B Coy S.15.C diagonal.

At 3:50 am intense bombardment replied to by Germans immediately.

At 4.05 am the Battalion in position for assault A&D Coys and two platoons of B coy with two machine guns and signalers in Coy column in front of our own lines. Two platoons of B&C Coys in support in the trenches.

At 4:20 am assault took place and we penetrated to Germans second line, but owing to the attack on the positions on our right not getting home, and the counter attack enveloping our own left flank the position became untenable and the battalion was forced to reoccupy our original line of trenches at about 8:15 am.

The German bombarded heavily until 1:00 pm and again from 9:00 pm till midnight. During the day the battalion was reinforced by two platoons of the 16th Somerset L I and were relieved in the trenches at 11:30 pm by the 6th D.C.L.I.

Casualties:  Officers 3 Killed; 5 wounded; 2 missing and 3 wounded and missing

                      O.R.      41 Killed; 280 wounded; 100 missing and 9 wounded and missing.  END