Thomas Thompson was born in 1898 in Bunbury, Cheshire in the March quarter of 1898. His birth was registered as Thomas Thompson but the family appears on early censuses as Barnes. The reason for the name change is not known. He was the son of John Barnes and Betsy Williams, both born in Bunbury, who married in 1884. His mother appears to have had a son before marriage, Levi Williams born in 1882 in Bunbury. They had at least eight children together. His father was a blacksmith and the family moved around villages in the Nantwich district.
Births registered as Barnes:
Walter Thompson born in 1884, and Fanny born in 1886, both in Bickerton.
Registered as Thompson:
Lily born in 1889, baptised in Bickerton (not found on any further records);
Florence born in 1891 in Peckforton;
Esther born 6/12/93, baptised in Burwardsley, parents’ residence Bunbury;
Samuel born in 1895 in Peckforton;
Thomas, 1897/8, and John born in 1899/1900, both in Bunbury.
In 1891 John and Betsy Barns (sic), are living at Fowler’s Branch, Peckforton. They are both 31, John is a blacksmith, Levi is 8, Walter 6, Fanny 4, and Flora 2 weeks old.
By 1901, listed as Barnes, they are in Bunbury, at 11 Church Yard Side, with seven children. His parents are both 41, his father, now John Thompson Barnes, is a blacksmith/employer, Levi, 18, is a corn miller’s carter, Walter, 16, is a blacksmith apprentice, Florrie is 10, Esther 7, Samuel 5, and John 1. Joseph (sic) is 3, but it is not known if this was recorded in error, or if Thomas was known as Joseph in the family. (There are no births of a Joseph Barnes or Thompson in the district. His father had brothers Joseph and Thomas.)
His father, John Barnes, died not long after the census in 1901 aged 41.
By 1910 all the family are known by the surname Thompson.
His brother Walter Thompson appears to have died in 1910, aged 25.
His mother Betsy Thompson died in the March quarter of 1911, just before the census, aged 51.
Intriguingly, there is another family in Bunbury with the name Barnes crossed out and replaced with Thompson.
In 1911 the only Thomas Thompson of approximately the right age born in Bunbury, is one of two servants on the farm of Alfred and Jane Hull, in Haughton, Tarporley. Thomas’ age is listed as 14; he is employed as an assistant cowman. His brother Samuel Thompson is also in Haughton, aged 16, a waggoner on the farm of Frederick and Helen Dutton. Esther (Hettie) Thompson 17, is one of three servants in the household of Joseph and Mary Wright in Alpraham, Tarporley. Florence, 20, had married in 1910 and is found with husband George Brookes, 23, a farm cowman, in Higher Bunbury. Fanny Thompson, 22, is a housemaid visiting William and Ada Proctor in Higher Bunbury.
His youngest brother John Thompson is living with eldest brother Levi (now Thompson) 29, a cornmiller, with wife Hannah and daughters Ethel and Hilda, at 57 Hartford Road, Davenham, Cheshire. John is 11, at school. (Levi served in the R.A.F. in 1918.)
He enlisted in Frodsham, Cheshire and was formerly 17672, Army Cyclist Corps. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for about a year before he was killed. He was transferred to the 17th Bn K.L.R. as Private No 86359 before shipping overseas, and served in ‘D’ Company.
Thomas died of wounds on the 10
th April 1918, aged 20.
He now rests at Foreste Communal Cemetry, (Aisne), France.
Foreste Communal Cemetery was used by the 92nd Field Ambulance in April 1917 and later by the 61st (South Midland) Division. The village fell into German hands in the summer of 1918.
The cemetery contains 117 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 22 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 23 casualties buried by the Germans whose grave cannot be traced.
TYhomas is one of those who is commemorated with a Special Kipling Memorial - “To the memory of these 23 soldiers of the British Empire who died as prisoners of war in 1918 and were buried at the time in this cemetery but whose graves are now lost”.
International Red Cross records received from the Germans (giving his rank as Corporal) show that he was shot in the lung and died in a German Field Hospital at Foreste, 8 or 9 miles west of St. Quentin.
Thomas was reported Wounded (but not missing) in the Weekly Casualty List on 7th May 1918.
The CWGC Graves Registration form initially gave his regimental number as 96359 and also gave his rank as Corporal, but was later amended.
No pension card has been found, indicating that Thomas had no dependents. His Army effects went to his sister Mrs. Florence Brookes, but the War Gratuity of £5 was “unissued”.
Thomas is commemorated on the Frodsham Obelisk and the Cheshire Roll of Honour
We currently have no further information on Thomas Thompson, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.
