| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Tom was a member of the Wagoners' Special Reserve, one of a volunteer corps of over a 1000 men who were given 15 shillings a year to sign up as reservist pole wagon drivers. Sir Mark Sykes of Sledmere had had the idea that the local agricultural workers on his estate farms who used horse drawn wagons would be perfectly suited to provide immediate and skilled military transport in the event of war. The call up came during harvest in 1914 and by 20 Aug 1914 Tom was in France.
Tom was born in 1891 in Arram, one of seven children born to William, a plate layer, and Rebecca. In 1911 Tom, age 19, was working at Cowlam, near to Sledmere as a horseman. On 7 Jul 1913 he enlisted as a Wagoner. At the outbreak of war, the Wagoners were posted to horse transport companies of the Army Service Corp, named 1-6 Parks and to begin with they were generally stationed behind the front lines transporting food and supplies. However, as the war dragged on, they found themselves on the front line, Tom was at the beginning of Oct 1917 involved in transport work for Australian troops. A letter written to Tom's mother by 2 Reserve Park's Commanding Officer, Major H M Dougall on 14 Oct 1917 tells how Tom had been awarded the Military Medal "for his very gallant conduct" and that he had been wounded and was in hospital. From the over 800 Wagoners who went to the Western Front, around 80 did not return. After the war Sir Mark Sykes commissioned a unique memorial to tell the story of his Wagoners' Special Reserve. It can be found in Sledmere village where there is also now a small museum at the entrance to Sledmere House.
Tom returned home and settled in Brandesburton.
Tom married Gertrude Shipley in 1923 at St Mary's Church, Brandesburton, brought up three daughters and he and Gertrude are buried in the churchyard.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |