Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
Thomas Cole, was one of 9 children of whom only 7 survived and 8 are known by name. His father James Cole was born 1853 at Lifton, near Tavistock on the borders of Cornwall and Devon. At the age of 19 he was an agricultural labourer living as a boarder in the home of John and Elizabeth Granville and having migrated post 1871 to the north east, he was married, October 3rd 1879 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland to Elizabeth Craven of Gateshead, County Durham, born 1854. Within two years of their marriage they had transferred to Ireland where William and Elizabeth were born 1881 and 1883 respectively. They then went to live at Mayhill, a suburb of the City of Glasgow, Scotland, birthplace of Jonathan in 1885, before returning to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where Thomas was born at Scotswood in 1886. James continued to move his family regularly in search of work and had left the land in favour of coal mining. John Wright Cole was born at Slatyford in 1888, Emma Jane, Harriett and Martha in 1891,1893 and 1896 respectively at Denton Burn, the family had moved in next door to Elizabeth’s widowed mother Elizabeth Craven and family at Wood Row. Within a few years James was also widowed when his wife Elizabeth Cole nee Craven, 52, died in 1906 in the district of Castle Ward, Northumberland, he was living at Bensons Buildings, Westerhope in 1911 employed as a coal hewer as was his son John Wright (22) who had just married Sarah Poole and moved his new bride into the family home.
Thomas Cole had married in 1908 to Margaret Annie Collins, born April 28th 1887 at Scotswood, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, their son John Wright Cole was born, December 3rd 1910, and in the 1911 census they are listed as visitors at Bensons Buildings, in the home of Margaret’s parents and siblings, Thomas was employed as a coal miner.
After the declaration of war with Germany, August 4th 1914, all regiments raised new battalions. Thomas Cole enlisted at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, November 5th 1914 assigned as Private 583 to the newly formed 22nd Battalion (3rd Tyneside Irish) Northumberland Fusiliers. After initial training near Newcastle the battalion moved to Alnwick camp within the grounds of Alnwick Castle where along with the 20th/21st and 23rd Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers it formed the 102nd Brigade, 34th Division in June 1915. Taken over by the War Office, August 15th 1915, the division moved to Salisbury Plain for final training and departed to France, January 1916. They concentrated at La Crosse, east of St Omer, after undergoing a period of trench familiarisation they were moved to the Somme.
Private 583 Thomas Cole Northumberland Fusiliers was killed in action, February 24th 1916, and interred at Sailly-Sur-La-Lys Canadian Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France. As the name indicates it was begun by the Canadian units as of March 1915, he is at rest grave II. C. 78. Although he is listed by the CWGC as 34 years of age, birth records and census entries confirm he was 30 years old.
His widow received all monies due to him from the Army, his awards of the British War Medal and Victory Medal also a pension for herself and their son until he turned 16 years of age in 1926, sent to her at 6, Malton Row, Benwell, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland. Margaret Annie commissioned at a cost of 15 shillings 2 pence an additional inscription to be added to her husband's military headstone, it reads,” Ever Remembered By His Loving Wife & Son Gone But Not Forgotten.”
Although Thomas’ brothers were also eligible to serve no records have been found.
Margaret Annie Cole remarried at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland in 1922 to John Wilkin, who may have died a few years later in 1926, aged 84-years. Margaret Annie Wilkin-Cole nee Collins died at 76 years of age in 1931 registered at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland.
John Wright Cole after the death of both his parents took the decision to emigrate to New Zealand where he was an upholsterer. He was married in 1937 to Mabel Edith Huggins, born at Auckland in 1914. In 1938 they were living at 28, Garnet Road, Grey Lynn, a suburb of Auckland City, and had moved to number 124 between 1940-1945, where they remained for their entire married life. John Wright Cole died late December 1979, cremated, December 28th 1979, Purewa Cemetery, his widow Mabel Edith Cole nee Huggins of 1/6 Richards Avenue died March 1983, cremated, March 22nd 1983, Purewa Cemetery, St Johns Road, Meadowbank, Auckland, New Zealand.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
