| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Thomas Palmer enlisted in the army on 11 Dec 1915 and served in the 1/4th Yorkshire Regiment and the 1/4th York and Lancaster Regiment. He was wounded in the thigh at Flers and Courcelette on 15 Sep 1916. He was one of many Beverley men to be killed or wounded on this day as the columns of the subsequent editions of the Beverley Guardian newspaper show. On 5 Dec 1917 at the age of 26 Thomas was discharged from the army, described as "physically unfit" due to wounds. He received the Silver Badge given to those soldiers forced out of the army by injury. He was later awarded the war and Victory Medals. His service is remembered on the Beckside Street Shrine.
Thomas was born in Beverley on Christmas Day 1890 and baptised at Beverley Minster the 16 Sep 1892. His mother Ellen Palmer was a domestic servant. Thomas' father was unknown though on the baptism documents for his older brother, Alfred, the name "John Paget" appears alongside the description, "illegitimate". Thomas' siblings Alfred, Olive and Harry are described as "half brothers and sisters". The family lived at 110 Flemingate. Ellen's unmarried brothers, William and Tom, also lived with them.
Thomas is described in the 1911 census as a "Shop assistant in a Grocers and Corn Merchants". Thomas married Florence E Etherington, a domestic servant, of Coburg Terrace, Holmechurch Lane, Beverley in 1912. They had a daughter Olive Edna in 1913. After 1918 Thomas was living at 23 Denton Avenue and the 1939 Register has them living at 48 Warton Avenue, he was a "rent collector". Florence died in 1967 and Thomas in 1974 in Hull, aged 83.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |