| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Thomas was born and baptised in Etton in 1899, the second son Herbert Theophilus King, a shepherd and Alice (nee Poppleton). The family lived around Etton and Gardham as part of the farming community. Herbert and Alice are both buried at Etton. His elder brother William joined the Yorkshire Regiment serving on the Western Front from Nov 1915 and sadly died in Mar 1918 having been awarded the Military Medal only a few months earlier.
Thomas was 15 years and 4 months old when he enlisted with the East Yorkshire Yeomanry in Jun 1915. A year later, in Oct 1916 Thomas set sail from Southampton, arriving in Alexandria, Egypt in Nov 1916 and he remained in the Middle East until his demobilisation from Kantara on the Suez canal in 1919. For a short time in 1917 he transferred to the 2/7 Northumberland Fusiliers before being transferred again to 809 Area Employment Company, the Labour Corps. His service record shows he was attached to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force and involved in the Sinai and Palestinian campaigns against the Ottoman Army. It also notes that in Oct 1918 he was punished for failing to obey an order to take a number of animals to Beirut.
Thomas returned to Beverley and in 1924 he married Mabel Sharp. The 1939 Register gives Thomas’s occupation as farm labourer, heavy work. The family were living at Wold House, Etton with their 5 children, the eldest of which, 14 year old Raymond was employed as a farm lad .
Thomas died on 29 Oct 1968 and was buried three days later at Beverley Queensgate Cemetery. He was 69 and had been living at 5 Queensway, Woodmansey. Mabel was buried alongside her husband when she died in 1987.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |