Name
Joseph Thomas
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/10/1918
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
301803
Staffordshire Yeomanry
1st/1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ALEXANDRIA (HADRA) WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY
F. 229.
Egypt
Headstone Inscription
I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE JOHN 11 25
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials
Pre War
Joseph Thomas was born in 1887 in Blackmore, Essex to Henry and Emily Thomas. On the 1891 Census the family were living at Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, where his father was a hay dealer. By the 1901 Census, although only 13, he was already working as a servant (house boy) at the house of Douglas Crossman (a brewer) and his family at Navestock in Essex. On the 1911 Census he was living at the Hillingdon Stables, Harlow, Essex and working as a Groom. He married Elizabeth Andrews in Walsingham in early 1915. They had a son Joseph W Thomas born in Bishop's Stortford on 28 April 1915.
Wartime Service
He initially enlisted in Reading into the Berkshire Yeomanry under Reg No. 1941 and later transferred to the Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen’s Own Royal Regiment), Corps of Hussars under Reg. No. 301803. He served with the British Expeditionary from 21 April 1915 in Salonika and Palestine. He was one of 200 men who became casualties from malaria during a stay in Damascus. He died of malaria in the Military Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £19 10s and pay owing of £39 0s 5d. She also received a pension of £1 0s 5d per week from 28 April 1919.
His wife, Mrs M Thomas or Plantains Wood, Bishop's Stortford, Herts, Requested the headstone inscription: "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE JOHN 11 25".
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
