| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Thomas Herbert Batty was born on 8 Feb 1897 in Beverley, one of Abraham and Eliza Harriet (nee Brown) Batty’s seven children. Abraham was a groom and jockey and the family lived in Tiger Lane, later moving to Minster Moorgate. Only Tom and four of his siblings survived to the 1911 census where Tom was listed as an errand boy for his father whilst working for a local barber. By the outbreak of war Tom was an assistant hairdresser at Alfred Tiplady’s barber shop.
Tom enlisted with the West Yorkshire Regiment on 31 Dec 1916. In Apr 1917 the Beverley Guardian announced that he was suffering from gunshot wounds to the neck and was being treated at the 1st South African General Hospital in Abbeville, but his service record shows that he was in France at the time. He was reported killed in action on 27 Aug 1917, a report that was withdrawn on 12 Sep the same year. Tom was eventually invalided out of the army on 25 Apr 1919 his disability being noted as a shell wound to his right knee. He was afforded a weekly pension of 8 shillings 3 pence. He was awarded the British medal, the Victory Medal and the Silver badge.
Tom died not long after the war on 6 Apr 1924, aged just 27, of pulmonary tuberculosis. At the time he was still living with his parents at Minster Moorgate, Beverley.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |