| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Arthur Thomas Elvidge was born in Colchester, Essex, on 1 Jul 1895 and baptised at the Garrison Church, Colchester Barracks where his father was serving on 6 Sep 1895. Thomas was the son of Thomas Elvidge and Kate Roper and one of six children born to them.
Before the war Thomas worked as a waggoner on his family farm. He enlisted in Bradford on 22 Dec 1914 and joined the Army Service Corps (ASC) as a driver. He went to France on 26 Sep 1915 but served with the 187th Company of the 66th Field Ambulance (22nd Division). This would seem to have been a temporary deployment as on 23 Nov 1915 he went to Egypt where he spent most of the war. He served with 928 Company, 75th Divisional Train of the RASC. They had responsibility for the transportation of supplies such as food and ammunition to the British frontline forces in Palestine. Thomas was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
Thomas returned home in 1919 and married Elizabeth Gibbon at St Nicholas’ Church in Beverley on 20 Jul 1920. Elizabeth born 1897 lived at Tigar Cottage, Grovehill Road. Her father was a stoker at a chemical works. They had four children. In the 1939 Register the family were living in Holme Church Lane and Thomas was employed as a builder’s labourer. He died in the autumn of 1991; his wife died the following year.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |