SPEECHLY, TOM MARTINDALE

 

Source

CWGC

SDGW

Uttoxeter Advertiser

Other

Parents

Tom Burge Speechly and Jessie Speechly, of Uttoxeter.

Yes

 

 

2

His mother’s father was William Perkin.

 

 

 

2

Father: Mr. T. B. Speechly

 

 

1a, 1b

 

Where born

Uttoxeter

 

 

 

2

When born

16th February 1897

 

 

 

2

Position in the family

2nd son

 

 

1b

2

Where educated

Thomas Alleyne’s School, Uttoxeter

 

 

 

2, 3

Address

Lloyds Bank House, Uttoxeter

 

 

1b

2

Uttoxeter

 

 

1a

 

Spouse

No

 

 

 

 

Children

 

 

 

 

 

Employment Before Joining up

Fruit farming in British Columbia

 

 

 

2

Where enlisted

 

 

 

 

 

Previous service

2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Regiment

 

 

 

 

Canadian Mounted Rifles

 

 

1b

 

Canadian Forces

 

 

1a

 

Hussars

 

 

1a

 

Regiment at the time of his death

Royal Flying Corps

Yes

 

1a, 1b

 

 

attached to Royal Flying Corps

 

 

 

2

Secondary Regiment

Reserve Cavalry Regiment & 5th

Yes

 

 

 

Unit at the time of his death

5th (Reserve) Hussars Cavalry Regiment

 

 

 

2

10th Hussars

 

 

1b

 

Hussars

 

 

1a

 

Rank

2nd Lieutenant

Yes

 

1b

2

Lieutenant

 

 

1

 

2nd Lieutenant (TP)

 

Yes

 

 

Service Number

 

 

 

 

 

Date of Death

8 February 1918

Yes

 

1b

 

Age at time of death

20

Yes

 

1b

 

Where Killed or died

Salisbury, England

 

 

 

 

How he died

Flying accident (mid-air collision)

 

 

 

 

Flying accident

 

 

1b

 

Location of Grave or Memorial

Salisbury (London Road) Cemetery

Grave L. 726

Yes

 

 

 

Buried at Salisbury

 

 

 

2

Uttoxeter Town War Memorial (Market Place)

 

 

 

7

Thomas Alleyne’s School War Memorial, Uttoxeter

 

 

 

7

Awards

 

 

 

 

 

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

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.

 

These are some of the shell-holes which are still visible in Sanctuary Wood.

 

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.

 

 

Tom Speechly never married.

He and is buried in Grave L.726 in the Salisbury (London Road) Cemetery.