Grave marker

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Thomas was born in South Shields on 8th April 1891 the son of marine engineer Robert and his wife Mary (nee Thompson). He was their oldest child, followed by Robert, John, Annie and Anchor, all born in South Shields, and then Robert and Norah born the other side of the river in North Shields. Thomas arrived in Canada first, followed by his father in mid 1911 and then his mother, grandmother and siblings in September 1911, all making for a new life in Ottawa.

When Thomas answered the call and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 23rd September 1914 at the camp at Valcartier he gave his occupation as sailor and hospital orderly, his next of kin as his father in Ottawa, mentioned the three years he had spent in the Governor General’s Body Guard and with the name Gladys tattooed on his right arm he became Private 33083 attached to #2 Field Ambulance, Canadian Army Medical Corps.

With eleven officers and 245 men the unit left Quebec on 25th September 1914 on the SS Cassandra, arriving in Plymouth on 15th October and spent four months in camp on Salisbury Plain before travelling to France in mid February 1915 and billets in Strazelle. Here the field ambulance units removed casualties from dressing stations and regimental aid posts to casualty clearing stations where urgent surgery was performed before the wounded were moved on to hospitals or convalescent homes. Moving into Belgium in April 2CFA found themselves based at Ypres and notes in the war diary just state “casualties coming in fast”, on one day alone in nine hours they treated 490 British and 365 Indian troops.

June 1915 saw Thomas himself treated by his colleagues when he reported sick with toothache, but the tooth was removed and he returned to duty the next day. Remaining on the front line in Belgium throughout 1915 the unit saw Christmas in billets at Dranoutre, and Thomas celebrated the New Year by being punished for not complying with an order whilst on active service.

April 1916 saw them move camp and travel through Poperinghe to Vlamertinghe where they took over the main dressing station from the Northumbrian Artillery. On the night of the 19th some of the personnel of 2CFA were killed or wounded in the heavy enemy bombardment, and one of those was Private Humble who according to the Circumstance of Casualty report was “driving a horse ambulance up to an advanced dressing station for the evacuation of the wounded. The road was being heavily shelled at the time and he was wounded in the left shoulder, both legs and head by shrapnel. He was evacuated to #10 Casualty Clearing Station, but he succumbed at 4pm”.

His name does not appear on any local war memorial.

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Humble