Name
Thomas Walter Roberts
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/07/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2857
East Surrey Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 6 B and 6 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring. New Mill Baptist Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
Thomas Walter Roberts was born in 1897 in Tring, Herts, the son of Walter and Mary Ann Roberts and one of four children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at New Town, Tring where his father was working as a gas fitter. By 1911 they had moved to The Gas Works, Tring, Herts where his father was the manager of the Tring Gas, Light & Coke Company Ltd.
Wartime Service
Thomas enlisted in Watford, Herts and joined the 7th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment at the age of 17. He served in France from June 1916.
He was attached to the 19th Battalion, Manchester Regiment when he went into action on 23 July 1916 at Trones Wood, during the Battle of the Somme. When he failed to answer the roll-call after the engagement with the enemy, he was presumed to be 'missing' or a prisoner. Several months later when enquiries later found no trace of him, his parents were notified that he was presumed dead. He was deemed to have been killed in action on 23 July 1916, aged 18. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £3 10s 5d. Pension cards exist with his father as dependant but no amount of pension is recorded.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, tringlocalhistory.org.uk,
