THOMAS John Charles

“John Charles Thomas was my great uncle (my Gran’s elder brother), here seated with his younger brother Bertie”, said Kathryn Whittingham.

Kathryn continued, “My Gran was a very superstitious woman and, growing up, I was never allowed to see loved ones off on their travels by train car, plane etc.  It turns out it was because she was convinced that John (Jack) died because she had gone to the train station to see him off to war, but that Bertie came back from the fighting because she had said goodbye at home.”

By Kathryn Whittingham.

Private 17352, 14th Welsh Regiment, Swansea Battalion

Died of Wounds on 10th July 1916 at MAMETZ WOOD, Somme
Remembered on the THIEPVAL MEMORIAL, France

Son of John & Francesca Thomas, Mill Lane, Blackpill.
The 1911 Census reveals: that Francesca was aged 40 and a Widow from Brecon and that John was a Collier as well as his brother Robert William (14), Siblings: Winnifred May (12), Percy James (4). 

Born Blackpill,  Enlisted 1914 in Swansea.

South Wales Daily Post 10 August 1916

. . . There is every reason for fearing that Pte J. O. Thomas, Mill Lane, Blackpill, also of the Welsh Regiment, is killed. His sergeant wrote a letter to Mrs Thomas, and said that Jack had been wounded badly in the legs by a bomb as he was entering the {Mametz] Wood, and he was then missed. . .

Three 'Mumbles Men' were killed on the same day at Mametz Wood

John THOMAS, Samuel GAMMON and George WALTERS