Photo: Geordie at War Project
In Gateshead East Cemetery is a family headstone which is difficult to read:
The burial place of
Thomas and Ann Jane French
In
Loving memory of
Our dear father and mother
Ann Jane French
died ?Decr. 1911 .
aged ?54 years
Also Thomas husband
of the above
who died August ?28th 19..
aged ?60 years.
Also their beloved son
Thomas French, M.M., R.A.M.C.
who was killed in action
May 3rd 1918 Aged 25 years.
(The last two lines are unreadable.)
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
Thomas French, as per the 1911 census declaration was one of 15 children, of whom only 14 survived, however, previous census entries only bring the total number of surviving children to 13 of whom he was the 2nd born of 4 brothers and had 8 elder and 1 younger sisters. His parents Thomas French and Ann Jane Tate both originated from Cumberland where Thomas was born at Flimby in 1850, Ann Jane at Cockermouth in 1855. Married at Camerton, Cumberland, November 16th 1872, the first of their numerous children were born there between 1874 and 1878, Mary, Susanna and Ann Eliza, before they migrated to the north east settling in County Durham. In 1881 they were living at 40, Bog Row, Hetton-le-Hole, with the latest addition to the family, Margaret born 1880, Thomas supported his family employed as a coal miner. Daughter Sarah was born at Hilton near Darlington in 1883 but two years later they had returned to Hetton where John William, Ethel, Jane and Elizabeth were born between 1883 and 1890. Thomas in 1891 was employed at Team Colliery in the village of the same name in the parish of Lamesley, still the only bread-winner. Thomas Jnr was born in the district of Chester-le-Street, County Durham in 1893, Alfred, August 25th 1895, Albert, April 14th 1897 and Emily 1899 at Gateshead. Thomas and family were living at 11, John Street in 1901, he was employed as a hewer and now had the help of his eldest son John William (18), employed as a chemical labourer, to support the family, by 1911 they could be found living in 3 rooms at 5, Boyd Terrace, Westerhope, Northumberland. Thomas Jnr’s elder sisters had all left the family home with the exception of Emily (21), he and his father and brothers were all employed as coal miners, Thomas Snr and John William (28) as hewers, Thomas Jnr (19) as a putter, Alfred (15) and Albert (14) as drivers, Emily (12) attended school.
Tragedy struck the family twice within a year when Ann Jane French nee Tate died aged 54 years during the 4th quarter (Oct/Nov/Dec) 1911 and John French aged 60 years, a hewer at Walbottle Colliery died, August 29th 1912, “whilst he was hewing at the gate-end in a lingual face, a piece of stone fell from the edge of the top catch, fatally injuring him.” It can only be presumed in the absence of information that the older married members of the family in some way assisted or took into their homes the younger siblings.
When war was declared in 1914 Thomas French enlisted and was assigned as Private 386343 to the 1st Northumbrian Field Ambulance, attached to the 3rd Field Ambulance of the 1st Division, Royal Army Medical Corps. The Field Ambulance was a mobile front line medical unit, not a vehicle, manned by the men of the Royal Army Medical Corps, most of which were under the orders of a Division and responsible for the care of one of the Brigades of that Division. Never more than 600 yards behind the front line they assisted and ferried the wounded back to the Advance Dressing Stations and evacuated then to hospitals, various rest areas and sick rooms.
During his war service Private French was awarded the Military Medal, for, “acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire.”
Private 386343 Thomas French Royal Army Medical Corps was killed in action, May 3rd 1918 and interred at Benvillers Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, grave XIV. C. 12. The cemetery in the village of Benvillers, 18 kilometres from Arras, was near the front line in 1918, and re-opened between Mach-September 1918. Private French was 25 years of age and single.
His sister Jane, married at Gateshead in 1914 to Edward L. Stephenson, received all monies due to him from the Army. One of his younger brothers, listed only as Mr. A. French of 47, Beech Grove, Blackhall Hill, Hamsterley Colliery, County Durham, commissioned at a cost of 2 shilling 6 pence an additional inscription to be added to his military headstone, it reads, “Memory Clings.”
Although all the French brothers would have been eligible to serve during WW1 no further records have been found, however, the son of Alfred and Mildred French, their only child, Thomas, born in 1919, was killed at the age of 21 years during WW2 in Libya and interred grave I. G. 1, Tobruk War Cemetery. With the death of his parents this line of the French family ceased to exist.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
Thomas French is remembered at Gateshead on G39.004 and at Whorlton on W53.01
