Thomas Henry Bashton was my grandfather, who survived the war.
He was born in Sept 1891. Interestingly Thomas Henry (1848) and Jane Meggison had called their first child Thomas, but he had died in infancy. Thomas Henry and Benjamin are both family names of the time and go back a fair way in the generations.
His brother Benjamin died in 1915.
Thomas initially enlisted with the D.L.I. at the outbreak of war but was transferred to the newly formed Royal Naval Division one week later. He would see his first action at Antwerp within a month. Benjamin was killed whilst Thomas was in transit to the Gallipoli peninsula.
Despite seeing further action, most notably on the Somme, Arras, Passchendaele and Cambrai, as well as being wounded twice, Thomas would still be serving with the R.N.D. at the Armistice in Belgium.
The name of Thomas Bashton has not been found on a local war memorial.
