Name
Thomas Daniel Josiah (poss D T J) Snare
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
18/04/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/5171
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 45 and 47.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Grammar School Memorial, Watford,
Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance,
Not on the Bushey memorials
Pre War
Born in Bushey in 27 September 1873 and baptised on 26 October 1873, Thomas Daniel Josiah Snare was one of seven children of Robert Cecil and Harriet (nee White) Snare. His father, the son of a flint merchant from Suffolk, came to Hertfordshire in the late 1850s and found employment with a linen draper in Watford High Street. Thomas and Harriet had married on 9 September 1862 at St Peter’s, Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire and they moved to Bushey village, where he took over an established drapery business in the High Street, at the corner with Cow Lane.
Harriet died 13 October 1913 in Oxhey, Herts, aged 74, and was buried 16 October at St James’, Bushey, Herts; Robert died 17 September 1914 in Oxhey aged 79, and was buried 21 September, also at St James.
At the 1881 census, Thomas was seven years old and living with his parents and six siblings in High Street Bushey. Robert was a draper, aged 46, and Harriet was 43 years old. Thomas’ siblings were named Harriet Elizabeth, George Edward, Gertrude P, Robert F, Mary E and Annie Maud, whose ages were 17, 15, 13, 11, 8 and 4 years respectively. Birthplaces for the family were given as Thorpe in Norfolk for Robert, Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire for Harriet and Bushey for all of the children. Also present were two servants, one being a draper’s assistant and the other a general servant. The business flourished and Robert adapted to the changing times and they became well known in the community. The coming of the Herkomer Art School in the 1880s provided new trade and he seized the opportunity to expand.
Thomas spent his childhood in Bushey and was educated at Watford Grammar School, but by the time of the 1891 census, when he was recorded as nineteen years old, he had left home and was employed as a draper’s assistant to John King, draper and outfitter, and his wife Catherine at 36 Bromley High Street in Bromley, Kent. Thomas was one of six draper and dressmaker assistants working there.
Thomas married Alice Gertrude Nightingale, a dressmaker from Tonbridge, on 13 November 1898 at Bromley parish church. By the 1901 census, Thomas and Alice were living at 8 Park End in Bromley and he was the manager of a clothier’s shop in the town. Their first son, Robert Cecil, was born in Bromley on 27 December 1899.
Meanwhile his father’s business at 44 Bushey High Street had prospered and Robert Snare set up another shop at 4 & 5 Church Row, Stanmore in Middlesex, about three miles from Bushey. In about 1903 Thomas returned from Kent to manage this shop, and his wife and her sister, Winifred Nightingale, helped with the business. Two more children were born there, Reginald Thomas on 13 August 1903 and Mildred Gertrude on 10 April 1908. The 1911 census records that the family also employed one female servant.
However, The London Gazette of 1 March 1913 recorded that the business in Stanmore had ceased trading and was in the hands of a London receiver.
Wartime Service
Thomas was 41 when war broke out in 1914 and he attested on 31 December 1914 at Mill Hill for short service (duration of the war) as Private 5171 with the Royal West Kent Regiment. He gave his occupation as a carman and was recorded as 5’6″ tall. He had previously served with the 2nd Battalion West Kent Volunteers.
He served at home from 31 December 1914 to 10 March 1915, when he was embarked for France, serving there in the 1st Battalion with the B.E.F. from 11 March 1915 to 18 April 1915 when he was reported missing, presumed killed in action. He was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914-15 Star medals, his qualifying date being 12 March 1915.
Thomas is commemorated at the Menin Gate memorial to the Missing. His wife received the standard medals awarded to all servicemen in 1920 and 1921. He is not commemorated on any of the Bushey memorials. Alice died, aged 68, in 1945 in Maidstone, Kent.
The Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects named his widow, Alice, as his legatee and included two payments, the first of £3 13s. 9d. on 14 June 1916 and £3 on 23 August 2019. His pension card also shows an award to Alice (care of Mrs Nightingale of Bordyke, Tonbridge) of 23 shillings, decreasing to 21 shillings per week with effect from 13 December 1915. Alice’s address later became 16 Ives Road, Bardon Park, Tonbridge.
Thomas’ mother, Harriet, died, aged 74, on 13 October 1913 in Oxhey, Hertfordshire, and was buried on 16 October at St James’, Bushey, Herts. Robert died, aged 79, on 17 September 1914 in Oxhey and was buried on 21 September, also at St James.
Additional Information
The published Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance entry reads:
“SNARE, DANIEL THOMAS JOSIAH. School period: April, 1884, to August, 1888. Private, Royal West Kent Regiment. Killed in action, 18th April, 1916.”
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk The Fullerian WBGS, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH online via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
