PRIVATE JOHN WARD THOMAS

[salientguide]

See below in memory of my Grans younger brother Private John Ward Thomas of St Mawes Cornwall MIA 100 years ago today serving with the "Steelbacks" 2nd battalion Northants, total war active service one 2 day trench tour killed on his 19th birthday during unexpected shelling coming out of the trenches whilst in a wood outside Villers Brettoneux.

One of the "under 19s" boys rushed out of training to fill some of the losses suffered in the Kaisers Offensive.The training battalion records a month earlier " age at which Cat IV men become elegible for front line service dropped by war office to 181/2". Accordingly a batch of 250 "men" identified and dispatched. The adjutant , on receipt of such reinforcements noted in the war diary" received draft of 250 men...consisted mainly of boys 18 years old"!!

RIP J W Thomas no known photo of him exists but he is recorded on 3 war memorials, St Mawes, St Just in Roseland Church and the Ovilliers Memorial to the Missing.