| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Tom Jenney was born in Beverley the 27 Apr 1893 and was baptised at St Mary’s Church the 30 Aug 1893, the oldest of eight children born to William Jenney and his wife Annabella (nee Riggs). William was a labourer and “corporation timekeeper” but was also a poulterer. Annabella came from Thoralby. They married at St Mary’s in 1890. The family home was on Waltham Terrace, Mill Lane, Beverley. Tom was recorded in the 1911 as being a butcher’s assistant but by the time of the war was a general labourer.
Tom served as a private in the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, The Green Howards, the 5th being nicknamed the Beverley Terriers. He arrived in France on 18 Apr 1915 and was immediately thrust into the fighting at St Julien near Ypres in Belgium. He would have served further time in Belgium, then on the Somme in 1916 and at Arras in 1917 before returning to Belgium, at Passchendaele in the second half of 1917. On Christmas Day 1917 Tom was gassed and taken to the 35th General Hospital in Calais before being transferred to the military hospital in Nottingham. A victim of “shell gas “as it was termed he spent 35 days in hospital.
Whilst on leave on 20 Apr 1918 Tom married Lilian Rippon, born 1900 at St Mary's Church, Beverley. However five days after the marriage Tom was admitted the Beverley Military Hospital with a severe mouth infection brought on by gas poisoning. He spent 71 days undergoing treatment and having been released on 4 Jul 1918 was further hospitalised at the Ripon North Base Hospital until 6 Sep of that year. He was discharged from the Army on 12 Dec 1918, considered unfit for further service. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals and the 1914-15 Star. He was also awarded the Military Medal for "bravery in the field” in Nov 1917.
After the war Tom continued to work as a general labourer. He and Lilian had five children in total, the first, Francis, born at the end of 1918. They lived in Cherry Tree Lane, Beverley. Tom died in 1961, aged 68. He is remembered on the Norwood Street Shrine along with his brother, Ernest William Jenney who died whilst a POW on 20 Oct 1918.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |