Name
Thomas Patrick Butler
1875
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/09/1918
42
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
320396
Royal Sussex Regiment
16th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
STE. EMILIE VALLEY CEMETERY, VILLERS-FAUCON
Sp. Mem. A. 9.
France
Headstone Inscription
GOD REST HIS SOUL
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Brighton War Memorial, Sussex, St Peter's Church Memorial Book, Brighton
Pre War
Thomas Patrick Butler was born in Dublin in 1875 the son and eldest child of Dr. Nicholas Joseph and Winifred Butler (nee Hodges), and baptised on 20 June 1876 at St Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Kingstown, Dublin.
On the 1881 Census Thomas is listed as Thomas Hodges Butler and living with his parents at 116 Stewards Road, Battersea, London. By the 1901 Census the family were living at 243 Ditchling Road, Preston, Sussex where his father was a Physician and Surgeon living on his own means. Thomas had then been joined by sisters Violet and Mary and a brother Edmund.
He was married on 11 April 1903 to Annie White Farrant at Brighton Parish Church, Sussex, at which time he was working as a Clerk and living at 28 Lewes Street. Their children Thomas Patrick (born 1904) and Edmond Philip (born 1905) were baptised at the Annunciation Church, Brighton on 22 November 1905, when they were living at 23 Liverpool Street, Brighton.
On the 1911 Census he was living with his wife Annie and sons Thomas and Edmund at 183 Elm Grove, Brighton, Sussex, and working as a Laundryman.
(N.B. although baptised as Thomas Hodges Butler, he was married as Thomas Patrick Butler and military records use the same middle name)
Wartime Service
Thomas enlisted in Brighton and initially served with the Sussex Yeomanry (Reg. No. 2802), which was later changed to the 16th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment when they were in Egypt in January 1917. He served as a Lance Corporal and the Battalion landed at Marseilles on 7 May 1918.
He was killed in action during the Battalion's attack on Quennet Copse during the Marne offensive on 21 September 1918, aged 42, and is buried at Ste Emilie Valley Cemetery, Villers-Faucon, France
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £19 and pay owing of £41 5s 7d. She also received a pension of £1 5s 5d a week for herself and her two children. The soldier's connection with Hemel Hempstead is not known.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.roll-of-honour.com, www.longlongtrail.co.uk
