296th Railway Company, Royal Engineers
Thomas Lewis was born in St John’s Parish, Gloucester in about October, 1884. His parents were Thomas Lewis and Emily Ann (née Beard). The couple appears to have had at least five children, with Thomas the only boy. It would appear that his father died between 1891 and 1894, possibly in 1892, after which his mother re-married on 12 May 1894: she married a widower named William Brooks.
At the time of the 1911 Census the family, which included Thomas and two other children from Emily’s first marriage, was living at 80 Sherborne Street, Gloucester. Thomas’ occupation is shown as a ‘foundry hand’.
An Army Service Record survives for Thomas, at least in part, and this shows he attested for military service at Cheltenham on 18 January 1915, at the age of 30 years and three months. He described himself as a ‘fitter’ and stated that he had had some previous military service with the ‘Gloucestershire Reserve E’. On 24 January 1915 he joined 113 Railway Company, Royal Engineers (formed in Cheltenham) and served in the UK until 13 April 1915. According to his Medal Index Card he originally had the number 55809: it is not known at what point this changed to WR/251103. He was then posted to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and served abroad for a period of three years and 326 days. On 25 January 1917 he transferred to 296 Railway Company. He returned to the UK on 6 March 1919. The Railway Companies prime activity was bringing and maintaining standard gauge railway track as near to the Front as possible, to take the load off the light railway system.
Whilst he was most probably sent home, sick, following his return to the UK, he continued to serve in the Army until he died, from pulmonary tuberculosis (considered to be attributable to his Army service), at Over Hospital, Gloucester on either 6 December (according to Army records) or 8 December 1919 (according to a Death Notice placed in the Gloucester Journal of 13 December 1919). He was aged, 34, a single man, whose next of kin was noted as his mother, still living at 80 Sherborne Street.
Thomas Lewis was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Gloucester War Memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 6 August 2019