Name
Thomas Simpson
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1917
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
32170
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5
France
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
St. Peter’s Church Memorial, Mill End, Nr Rickmansworth
Pre War
Thomas Simpson’s birth was registered in the Eton District of Buckinghamshire in the second quarter of 1879. He lived in Iver, Buckinghamshire, and his parents were George and Amelia Simpson. George was an agricultural labourer. Thomas was boarding in Church Lane, Mill End, Rickmansworth in 1901, aged 22, and worked as a labourer in a gravel pit. In 1903 he married Annie Nutter, a widow with three children who was living next door. The marriage was registered in Watford district. They still lived in Church Lane, Mill End, Rickmansworth in 1911, with two further children, and he worked as a general labourer.
Recorded as enlisting in Watford.
Wartime Service
Thomas Simpson served in the 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.
His battalion formed part of 112th Brigade and the 37th Division, except for a short period from 7 July to 21 August 1916 when the Brigade transferred to the 34th Division. They fought at the battles of the Somme in 1916. In early 1917 the battalion was in northern France near Loos and then moved to Arras in early April. They took part in the British attack at the First Battle of the Scarpe on 10 April. Thomas was killed on 23 April as the battalion assembled in preparation for the Second Battle of the Scarpe which began the following day.
The army paid his widow £5 1s 4d including a war gratuity of £3.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
