Pte 57824 Thomas Bowerbank Pyburn

• Age: 26
• From: Belmont Durham
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 23rd July 1917
• Commemorated at: Menin Gate Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 4 & 6

Thomas was born on 27^th August 1890 in Belmont, Co. Durham, and baptised on 28^th September.  His parents Philip Pyburn and his wife Annie (nee Bowerbank) had married in Durham that year.  Both his parents were born in County Durham.  Thomas was the eldest of six children; his siblings were Philip (who died at age 4), William, Catherine (who died at age 1), Sarah, and Elizabeth.

 In 1891 his parents are living with Annie’s widowed mother and her sons Thomas Robert and John, in Carrville (south side). His father Philip is a fitter and turner.  Thomas is 7 months old. 

 In 1901 Thomas is living with his parents and younger brother William at 37 High Street, Carrville. His father is steam engine fitter and turner. Thomas is 10.  His father, a well-respected mechanic at a colliery, died in December 1910, aged 45, from influenza followed by pneumonia.

In 1911, widowed mother Annie is again living in the household of her mother, Elizabeth Bowerbank, and her brother John, at 112 High Street, Carrville, near Durham.  Thomas is 20 years old, single, and a teacher in training at Dundee College. His siblings William, Sarah and Elizabeth are also in the household. A few months after the census was taken, his only brother William died, at age 16 leaving Thomas as the only surviving son.

Prior to enlisting Thomas was a teacher at Hetton-le-Hole Lyons School. 

It is not known when Thomas enlisted at Durham; he served as Private 429 Army Cyclist Corps before being transferred to the 19^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 57824. By May 1917 the battalion was in the Ypres salient, in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele. According to the battalion War Diary, on the evening of 23^rd July, the battalion proceeded to the line, relieving the 6^th Bn Royal West Kents.  At some point Thomas was killed, aged 26, likely from routine shelling or gunfire, but his body was never recovered; he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, in Ypres.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927.

Thomas was listed as Killed in the Weekly Casualty List, 28^th August 1917. His effects went to his mother Annie, who was then living at 111 High Street, Carrville.  She died in 1935.

His death was reported in the Newcastle Journal of 08th November 1917:

Officials under the Education Committee, numbering 691, are on war service, including 461 certificated assistants. In addition, there are 155 who have either made the great sacrifice, been discharged, or transferred to Army Reserve W. Since the last report, five more have laid down their lives in the service of the country. vis. : — Second-Lieut. S Brown, East Lanca. Regt. (Bishop Auckland Grammar School), Bombardier J. P. Wake, R.G.A. (Bowburn), Pte.George Crawford, King's Liverpool Regiment (West Herrington), Pte.T. B. Pyburn, King's Liverpool Regiment (Hetton Lyons), and Corpl.  M. W. Rudd, D.L.I. (Education Department).
Sergeant-Major Fred Dann, Intelligence Depart-ment, assistant master at the Johnston Technical School, had been appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order by his Majesty; and Captain T. Harker, D.L.I. (Anfield Plain Upper Standard School) had been awarded the Military Cross for distinguished service on the field.
Education estimates were passed as follow — Elementary, £174,955, and higher, £21.960.

Thomas is commemorated on the following memorials:

Dundee Training College War Memorial

St. Mary Magdalene Churchyard, WW1 Memorial, Belmont

The family headstone in St. Mary’ Churchyard.

We currently have no further information on Thomas Bowrbank Pyburn, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.