Name
Oswald Leslie Tomlin
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
75366
Royal Engineers
A.N. Cable Section
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BRANDHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY
II. F. 14.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
In heaven to meet again Father and Mother Brothers and Sisters love
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin, British Schools Museum Memorial, Hitchin
Pre War
Oswald Leslie Tomlin was born in 1898 in Hitchin and christened on 20 Mar 1898 in St Mary’s Church, Hitchin, Hertfordshire in . His parents were James and Mary Ann Tomlin (née Turner). They married in St Ippolyts in 1876.
In 1901 the family were living at 3 Hitchin Hill Path, London Road, Hitchin. Present were both parents: James (47) and Mary (48), James working as a bricklayer. Their children were: Florence (22), Percy (17), Frank (15), Stanley (13), Mabel (11), Harold (9), Wilfred (6) and Leslie (3).
By 1911 the family were still at the same address and both parents were present, James still working as a bricklayer. The census recorded they had been married for 35 years with 11 children, of whom 1 had died. Of the above children only Wilfred and Leslie (Oswald Leslie) were syill present, Oswald was 13 and working as a domestic errand boy. They had a new brother Claude (8).
Officially Oswald was recorded as born and enlisted in Hitchin.
Wartime Service
Oswald landed in France on 4 December 1915 with the Corps Number 75366 and posted to the A.N. Cable Section R.E.
He was killed in action in Belgium and was buried in Plot 2, Row F, Grave 14 in the Brandhoek Military Cemetery in Belgium. There is a private inscription on his gravestone reading "In heaven to meet again Father and Mother Brothers and Sisters love".
This cemetery was opened to serve an adjacent Dressing Station, which strongly suggests that he was not killed immediately, but reached a dressing station, but perhaps died while being transported. This may help explain the discrepancy in his data of death, while the CWGC gives 1 July 1916, Oswald’s pension card and soldier’s effects records give the 2nd.
Additional Information
After his death £6 3s 7d pay owing was authorised to go to his father, James, on 31 October 1916. Later, a war gratuity of £4 was authorised to be paid to him on 28 August 1919. There is also a note suggesting a clain of 14s was made on 6 March 1917.
His pension cards record Mary Ann as his mother and as his dependant, living at 3 Hitchin Hill Path, London Road, Hitchin. She was awarded a pension of 5s a week from 23 January 1917. Her names was crossed out and changed to his father James with the note, referring to his mother as, “Wholly impaired shock at news of son’s death”.
The family places an ‘In Memoriam’ notice in the Hertfordshire Express on 29 June 1918.
Note his pension cards and the soldier’s effect register give the day of his death as 2 July 1916 not the 1st.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
