Royal Engineers
Thomas Joseph Mathews was born in 1893, and baptised with his siblings Emily, Charles, Walter, James, Agnes and Ethel on 26 November 1905 at Sherborne.
Thomas was the son of Thomas Frederick Mathews and Lydia Kate (née Sutton). And his siblings were Eva (1890), Nelly Kate (1892), Emily Rose (1894), Charles Raymond (1896), Walter Armer (1899), James Lawrence (1901), Agnes Margery Annie (1903), Ethel Mary (1905), Margaret Tate (1907), Robert Jack (1909), and Arthur Harry Sutton (13 November 1911).
Prior to the war Thomas was, like his father, a house painter.
Thomas served with the Royal Engineers (‘L’ Company) in Chatham. No Army Service or Pension Records appear to have survived but his Medal Rolls Index Card and Medal Roll states that he first went abroad, to France and Flanders on 7 September 1915. This would indicate he was an early war volunteer.
Thomas died from pneumonia on 25 October 1918 at Fort Pitt Military Hospital, Chatham, Kent; he was 25 years old. He was buried in Sherborne Churchyard Extension, which belongs to St Mary Magdalene’s Church, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Sherborne War Memorial. A Roll of Honour for the Sherborne men who served in the Great War is held in St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Sherborne.
Researched by Baden Russell May 2021