Name
Thomas William Pink
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/04/1918
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
202380
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POZIERES MEMORIAL
Panel 36 and 37.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
St Mark’s Church Plaque, Colney Heath, Not on the Borehamwood memorials
Pre War
Born in Borough Green, Kent and lived at 8 Clarendon Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire (1911) and Roestock Lane, Roestock, Hertfordshire (circa 1918). His wife was Mary Jane Pink of Colney Heath, St. Albans.
The 1911 census confirms that Mary was born in Nast Hyde and their eldest child, Amy Florence (B 15/6/1910), was born in Smallford. It also records that Thomas and Mary had been married for 10 months (circa May 1910). It is known from an article in the Herts Advertiser that Thomas left his widow with three children. The school log records Amy (pupil no 324) as attending between 24th January 1916 and 31st July 1924. She had a younger brother, Thomas William James (B 17/7/1911) identified as pupil no 335, who started on 28th March 1916 and left on 17th July 1925. Both children are confirmed as having William James Pink as their guardian and living in Sleapshyde. Both had previously attended a school in Borehamwood.
It is likely that at some point just before Thomas was sent to France the family moved from Borehamwood to Sleapshyde to live with Thomas’ brother, before Mary and the children moved to Roestock Lane. This would have been sometime between the beginning of 1916 and early 1919. The school log records Winifred Georgina Pink (pupil no 450) of Roestock Lane, who started at the school on 5th May 1919 and left in 1929 (B 03/03/15). She was another daughter of Thomas and Mary Pink, the register shows Mary as the parent, as by then Thomas had been killed. The records at St Mark’s Church confirm that both Thomas William James (31/12/1911) and Winifred Georgina (25/4/1915) were baptised there. He worked as a platelayer with the Midland Railway in Elstree (1911)
Wartime Service
Thomas enlisted on December 8th 1914 in the Bedfordshire Regiment. Shortly afterwards he was transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and proceeded to France with that regiment in July 1916.
Thomas was given home leave in October 1917, returning to France in early November.
The war diaries indicate that on the night of 6th April 1918 when he died, Thomas was working on the construction of a broad winch which was designed to fulfil the purpose of a tank trap. This was on the Amiens to Albert road, about 600 yards north of Buirie Sur L’Anere.
Additional Information
Mary received a Widows Pension of 29/7, a week from 4 November 1918, her address was Roestock Lane, Colney Heath, Herts. Mary also received his effects of £12-19s-9d, Pay Owing and a War Gratuity of £15-10s-00d.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Graham Clark – World War One – The Fallen of London Colney, Grace Clark, Jonty Wild
