Son of John Samuel and Hannah Hammond, of Sunderland, Co. Durham; husband of Ethel Hammond, of Sunderland.
Linda Gowans has submitted the following:-
Thomas was born in 1894 in Sunderland, where his parents John Samuel and Hannah (née Hedley) had married the previous year. In 1901 John, a Grocer’s Warehouseman, Thomas Percival and a younger brother John Hedley are visiting some of the Hedley family at 58 Ravensworth Street. By 1911 the Hammond family was at 17 Erith Terrace. Thomas was working as a Clerk for a Tar Distiller; brother John and a sister Freda Isabel were also present.
In early 1918 Thomas married Ethel Howitt, a Shorthand Writer and Typist born in New Herrington in 1891. In 1911 she was living with her parents and three sisters at 4 Hutton Street, Sunderland. They had only a few months of marriage, for some of which he would have been serving in Italy. At the time of his death their address was 182 Cleveland Road.
Thomas appears to have joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner, with the number 237257, but no service documents survive other than a Medal Card which records that his overseas service had all taken place in Italy. On February 18, 1918, by which time he was part of an Officer Cadet Unit, he was made Second Lieutenant.
Italy entered the war on the Allied side, declaring war on Austria, in May 1915. Commonwealth forces were at the Italian front between November 1917 and November 1918, and in March 1918 relieved Italian troops on the front line between Asiago and Canove.
The Battle of Asiago took place on June 15th-16th 1918, and it seems likely that Thomas died of wounds received in action on the first day. Cavalletto British Cemetery is 12 kilometres south of Asiago, in the Veneto region of Italy
Thomas Percival Hammond is remembered at Sunderland on S140.009 and S140.010
