| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Tom Johnson was born in Beverley the 16 Jan 1887 and baptised at Beverley Minster the 10 Feb 1887, he was one of four children born to William Johnson and his wife, Rebecca, who married in 1879. The family lived initially on Lairgate, but 44 Keldgate became the family home. Tom, like his father, was a general labourer. Tom married Clara Baker, born in 1890, the daughter of a farm baliff from Beverley Parks on 11 Sep 1911, at Beverley Minster.
Tom enlisted on 11 Dec 1915, he was a private in the 6th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment but can only have joined them on their return from the Gallipoli Campaign. He later switched to the 10th Battalion of the East Yorks, the 1st Hull Pals Battalion. He was serving in “C” Company of the 10th when they were switched from the Somme to Belgium in Apr 1918. A German attack on the Lys prompted a retreat and upon arrival in the area the 10th were put into action but pushed back by the strength of the German advance. Tom was taken prisoner. Though reported missing he was eventually recorded by the International Committee of the Red Cross as being a POW at the Quedlinburg Camp in central Germany, in the Harz Mountains. Tom was put to work in a local salt mine and experienced poor treatment, overcrowding and food shortages during his time in captivity. He returned to Beverley on 3 Jan 1919. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals. He was formally discharged from the Army as unfit for further service on 23 May 1919 and awarded a Silver Badge
Tom continued to live in Beverley and was recorded on the 1939 Register as being a drainage labourer. He died, aged 70, in Jan 1958 and was buried at Beverley’s Queensgate Cemetery on 4 Jan 1958. Tom is remembered on the Keldgate Street Shrine.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |