| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Driver Tom Williamson, aged 23, serving with “A” Battery of the 124th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery was killed in action on 19 Sep 1918 in northern France. His body was never recovered, he is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial at Haucourt, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. He was involved in the British actions against the heavily fortified defensive German Hindenburg Line, back towards which the German army had been retreating eastwards since their defeat at the Battle of Amiens in Aug 1918.
Tom was a regular soldier, he enlisted in 1912 and had arrived in France with the 14th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. The 14th were involved in the British retreat from Mons and the Battle of the Marne in Sep 1914. Tom spent the rest of the war in France, he was awarded the War and Victory Medals as well as the 1914 Star with Clasp that showed that the recipient had “served under fire between 5 Aug and 22 Nov 1914”.
Tom was born in Beverley the 8 Sep 1895 and baptised at St Mark’s, Hull the 6 Nov 1895, the son of Tom Williamson and Sarah. The family returned to live at 2 Minster Terrace, Minstermoorgate, Beverley. Tom senior had been a farm labourer and later worked as a horse driver and general labourer but is recorded in 1895 as being a “greengrocer”. Tom junior worked as a “general carrier” after leaving school and then worked at Hodgson and Sons’ glue works for a year before joining up in 1912. Tom was unmarried
Tom is remembered on the Hengate Memorial in Beverley.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |