DAVIES Thomas
Private 11851 Thomas DAVIES
1st South Wales Borderers Killed in Action, on 25th January 1915, Age 17 years.
Buried with Honour at BROWNS ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, Festubert.
One hundred years later his great niece, Meryl Harries, her husband, Jon, and Ray Elliott, visited the CWGC Cemetery where he is buried to lay a wreath and remember his contribution to the war.
Thomas DAVIES'S name, along with 14 others, has been inscribed near to the Rood Screen Memorial,
at All Saints' Church, Oystermouth,at a ceremony on Friday 17th March 2017.
Remembering
Private Thomas Davies
On January 25th 1915 Private Thomas Davies (11851) was killed in action in France. He was serving with The South Wales Borderers, having volunteered in the aftermath of the declaration of war in August 1914. One hundred years later his great niece, Meryl Harries, her husband, Jon, and Ray Elliott, visited the CWGC Cemetery where he is buried to lay a wreath and remember his contribution to the war.
Thomas Davies was born on March 29th 1897 in the Mumbles. A newspaper noted that the family were living in William Street at that time. He was the 5th of six children born to Thomas Davies and his wife Catherine and their youngest son. In 1898 possibly as a result of bearing her sixth child, Catherine died and it seems the family was split up. So far it has proved difficult to trace exactly where Thomas, the son, went to live.
However, in 1914, he may have been in Newport, Monmouthshire as this is where the evidence suggests he signed on as a volunteer, joining the South Wales Borderers.
Under the rules of the day this should not have been allowed as the minimum age for a soldier was 18.
However, as at the time no documentary proof of age was required, Thomas must have given an incorrect age. It is likely he claimed to be 19 because if a recruit was to serve abroad that was the minimum age. However, the probability of establishing what actually happened is very low as the necessary documentary evidence does not seem to have survived.
One hundred years later his great niece, Meryl Harries, her husband, Jon, and Ray Elliott, visited the CWGC Cemetery where he is buried to lay a wreath
Thomas, undoubtedly, would have completed some basic training and seems to have been sent to France to join the 1st Battalion late in 1914 or, more likely, in very early 1915. According to the Battalion diary on January 11th 1915 a draft of 240 men accompanied by a Capt Salmon and a 2nd Lieutenant Raikes arrived at Choque from where they were marched to Bethune.
It seems most likely that Thomas was part of this detail, a judgement confirmed by details in the Mumbles Press published in March 1915. Here it is stated that he had been in France for two weeks before his death.
During the first days after he arrived in France the Battalion diary shows that the Battalion operated mainly between Bethune, Givenchy and Festubert, an area which the Battalion Museum states was no better than ‘water-logged mud flats’.
It seems that one of the objectives of these operations was to recover trenches lost when the Indian Corps had been driven out by the Germans probably in December 1914. At the same time, in the days leading up to his death Thomas and his comrades also appears to have been involved in the routine tasks of trench maintenance.
Meryl Harries, his great niece, laid a wreath
Monday January 25th was slightly different. It was the Kaiser’s birthday and the Germans launched a heavy bombardment on all front line and support trenches. There were also some ground attacks, which were successfully repulsed. It seems Thomas Davies was killed during one of these operations in an area called La Bassee but there is no reference to him specifically in the Diary. He was buried in what became known as Brown’s Road Military Cemetery, alongside 1071 other casualties, of which 407 have never been identifiedHis death does not seem to have been reported in the local newspapers until March 1915. The South Wales Daily Post of 30th March carried a small picture but said nothing of the circumstances of his death. It did state, however, that his home was in William Street, Mumbles.
The Mumbles Press reported on April 8th that he had been killed in action at La Bassee, noting that he had only been at the front for two weeks. Both papers stated that he was 18 years old. He was not. He had died two months before his 18th birthday, to become one of the youngest to die during the conflict.
Names are added to the Mumbles Memorial
11 November 2006
The New Mumbles Memorial at Southend Gardens was rededicated by Mumbles Community Council, adding granite plinths, placed either side of the stone memorial unveiled in 1939.
The new memorial is inscribed with the names of the Great War and Second World War local casualties, including Thomas DAVIES and many others, whose names had been omitted from The Rood Screen, Great War Memorial, within All Saints' Parish Church, Oystermouth, Mumbles and the Second World War Memorial in the Churchyard.
The modifications to the memorial over the years can be seen here.
His name is engraved on MUMBLES MEMORIAL at Southend Gardens
Thomas DAVIES'S name, along with 14 others, will be inscribed near to the Rood Screen Memorialand
and the Plaque will be unveiled at a service at All Saints' Church, Oystermouth, Mumbles
at 7 pm on Friday 17th March 2017, when all are welcome.
Elizabeth Mary DAVIES on her wedding day in August 1916 to George William Heath (Thomas' older sister and my grandmother)
Auntie Katie
Family Bible, list of names, including William Thomas DAVIES, born 30 November 1887