SPEECHLY, TOM MARTINDALE
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Source |
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CWGC |
SDGW |
Uttoxeter Advertiser |
Other |
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Parents |
Tom Burge Speechly and Jessie Speechly, of Uttoxeter. |
Yes |
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2 |
His mother’s father was William Perkin. |
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2 |
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Father: Mr. T. B. Speechly |
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1a, 1b |
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Where born |
Uttoxeter |
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2 |
When born |
16th February 1897 |
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2 |
Position in the family |
2nd son |
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1b |
2 |
Where educated |
Thomas Alleyne’s School, Uttoxeter |
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2, 3 |
Address |
Lloyds Bank House, Uttoxeter |
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1b |
2 |
Uttoxeter |
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1a |
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Spouse |
No |
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Children |
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Employment Before Joining up |
Fruit farming in British Columbia |
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2 |
Where enlisted |
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Previous service |
2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Regiment |
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Canadian Mounted Rifles |
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1b |
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Canadian Forces |
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1a |
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Hussars |
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1a |
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Regiment at the time of his death |
Royal Flying Corps |
Yes |
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1a, 1b |
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attached to Royal Flying Corps |
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2 |
Secondary Regiment |
Reserve Cavalry Regiment & 5th |
Yes |
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Unit at the time of his death |
5th (Reserve) Hussars Cavalry Regiment |
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2 |
10th Hussars |
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1b |
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Hussars |
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1a |
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Rank |
2nd Lieutenant |
Yes |
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1b |
2 |
Lieutenant |
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1 |
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2nd Lieutenant (TP) |
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Yes |
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Service Number |
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Date of Death |
8 February 1918 |
Yes |
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1b |
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Age at time of death |
20 |
Yes |
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1b |
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Where Killed or died |
Salisbury, England |
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How he died |
Flying accident (mid-air collision) |
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Flying accident |
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1b |
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Location of Grave or Memorial |
Salisbury (London Road) Cemetery Grave L. 726 |
Yes |
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Buried at Salisbury |
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2 |
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Uttoxeter Town War Memorial (Market Place) |
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7 |
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Thomas Alleyne’s School War Memorial, Uttoxeter |
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7 |
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Awards |
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The Uttoxeter Advertiser roll of honour and the De Ruvigny Roll of Honour both spell his surname correctly as Speechly. The town’s memorials wrongly list him as Speechley, but the school’s memorial panel is correct.
The panels of the school’s war memorial are on the wall of Trinity Hall at Thomas Alleyne’s School |
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His parents were Tom Burge Speechly and Jessie Speechly, of Uttoxeter. Tom was the second son[1b] and they lived in the house attached to Lloyds Bank in Uttoxeter[1b]. His father was the bank manager[2].
In his obituary, the Uttoxeter Advertiser[1b] said that he was of splendid physique, and had he been spared would have ‘attained his majority’ (reached the age of 21) a little over a week after he was killed.
According to the De Ruvigny Roll of Honour[2], he went to British Columbia in May 1914 to take up Fruit Farming. On the 4th of August 1914, upon outbreak of war, he joined the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Regiment and volunteered for foreign service[1b, 2].
He came to Europe with the Canadian Forces[1a] and served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from the end of August 1915[2]. He took part in a lot of fighting, particularly in the Ypres area[2], for about 15 months [2].
He was present in Sanctuary Wood in the Ypres salient during the German attack that occurred between the 2nd and the 4th of June 1916[2] and acted as Battalion Runner, taking messages to and from the trenches. These were particularly dangerous duties and a lot of men lost their lives performing this role. Their duties generally called upon them to cross open ground under fire.
Some of the trenches are preserved in Sanctuary Wood. Tom Speechly acted as runner here and he would certainly have done this under shell and gunfire.
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These are some of the shell-holes which are still visible in Sanctuary Wood.
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In all probability Tom will have delivered messages to this dugout: |
Some of the original trees can still be seen in Sanctuary Wood. They were all destroyed by shellfire and reduced to stumps. These show their war scars clearly |
In August 1917 the Uttoxeter Advertiser[1a] reported that Tom had just been accepted for a commission in the Royal Flying Corps and was training at an aviation school in England.
He was gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th (Reserve) Hussars[1b] on 21st December 1916[2].
He was attached to the Royal Flying Corps (the precursor of the Royal Air Force) on 28th July 1917[2] and joined the 103rd Squadron at Salisbury in November 1917 [2].
He qualified as a pilot on 2nd February 1918[2] and was killed in a flying accident at Chippenham on the 8th of February[2], just six days later.
The De Ruvigny Roll of Honour[2] quotes part of a letter which his commanding officer wrote:
“He is a very great loss to the squadron, in which he was extremely popular with both officers and men, and was killed in the execution of his duty. I had noted him as one of our most promising and capable pilots. He was very keen on his work and a splendid example to his brother officers.
Records for Tom Speechly’s squadron indicate that he was most likely flying a DH9.
The D.H.9 arose from a decision taken in 1917 to more than double the number of squadrons in the Royal Flying Corps. Most of the new units were formed to undertake daylight bombing of Germany. It was a good design, with pleasant handling qualities, but it suffered from problems with the engines. Consequently, its performance was not as good as the D.H.4 that it was meant to replace.
The prototype was flown in November 1917, and Tom was killed in his on the 8th of February 1918. Tom’s was the first unit to re-equip with D.H.9s and received its first aircraft in December 1917. He was therefore one of the first pilots to fly it.
In 1917, Trenchard appealed for the D.H.9 to be cancelled, but production was already well underway and his plea went unheeded.
Over the next few months there was a rapid build-up of D.H.9 squadrons on the Western Front, and he would have been sent to one of these if he had lived.
Ultimately, the D.H.9 was used in its thousands and its squadrons on the Western Front put in a lot of hard work. By the end of 1918, more than 4000 had been produced.
This shows a De Havilland 9A 02, which
is very similar to the DH9 that Tom was most likely to have been
flying. The D.H.9A was fundamentally a refined version of the D.H.9,
fitted with a reliable engine. The main differences were that its
wings were of a larger area to match the larger, heavier engine. The
engine was also fully cowled and had a frontal radiator.
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Tom Speechly never married.
He and is buried in Grave L.726 in the Salisbury (London Road) Cemetery.