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Source |
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CWGC |
SDGW |
Uttoxeter Advertiser |
Other |
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Parents |
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Where born |
Marchington Woodlands, Staffordshire |
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Yes |
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When born |
About 1870 |
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4 |
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Address |
21, Stone Road, Uttoxeter |
Yes |
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1b |
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Stone Road, Uttoxeter |
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1a, 1c |
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Spouse |
Elizabeth Foster |
Yes |
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Children |
9 |
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1b |
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Employment Before Joining up |
Fitter at the Leighton Ironworks for many years |
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1b |
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When enlisted |
Between 7th & 14th April 1915 |
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1a |
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Where enlisted |
Uttoxeter |
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Yes |
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Regiment |
Royal Army Ordnance Corps |
Yes |
Yes |
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The Army Ordnance Corps |
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2 |
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Unit |
Depot |
Yes |
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Rank |
Lance Corporal |
Yes |
Yes |
1b, 1c |
2 |
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Service Number |
05942 |
Yes |
Yes |
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2 |
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Date of Death |
22 July 1918 |
Yes |
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1b |
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12 July 1918 |
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Yes |
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2 |
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Age at time of death |
47 |
Yes |
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1b |
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Where Killed or died |
Military Hospital, Wadsley, Sheffield |
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1b, 1c |
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How he died |
Illness contracted on the Western Front |
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1b |
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Location of Grave or Memorial |
Uttoxeter Cemetery Grave New. I. 1789. |
Yes |
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3 |
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Uttoxeter Town War Memorial (St. Mary’s Church)) |
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2, 3 |
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Awards |
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Thomas was married to Elizabeth Foster and they lived at 21, Stone Road, Uttoxeter.
Before the war he was employed in the fitting department of the Leighton Ironworks for many years.
He joined the forces as a fitter some time between the between 7th & 14th of April 1915[1a, 1b] and went to France with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in the following September[1b].
By July 1918, when the Uttoxeter Advertiser reported that he had been taken ill, he had advanced to Lance Corporal[1b].
He was taken ill in France at the end of June 1918 and moved to the Military Hospital, Wadsley, Sheffield, where he died 3 weeks later[1b]. Mrs. Foster and their sons John (serving with the North Staffordshires) and Samuel (disabled since the Hohenzollern Redoubt in 1915) were present at the hospital when he died[1b].
He left a wife and nine children[1b].
In the article reporting his death[1b], the Uttoxeter Advertiser said that he as the first Uttoxeter man who had died as a result of a disease contracted on the Western Front.
| The hospital where he died |
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His body was brought back to Uttoxeter for burial in Uttoxeter Cemetery and his obituary in the Uttoxeter Advertiser[1c] says that there was a very large attendance of sympathetic friends and neighbours at his funeral.
Amongst those present at the funeral were members of the Comrades of the Great War, a number of local soldiers home on leave, and a detachment of the local Volunteers. His coffin was borne by a contingent of soldiers[1c].
Elizabeth, his wife, was left with 9 children[1b], including sons John and Samuel and daughters Maggie, Ethel, Jessie, Doris and Lily[1c].
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Thomas and Elizabeth Foster’s grave in Uttoxeter Cemetery |
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Elizabeth shares a grave with her husband and her headstone has the following touching inscription: In loving memory of a dear Mother ELIZABETH FOSTER who died Nov 11th 1977 aged 96 years. re united.
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