Cpl 58646 Thomas Edward Seddon

• Age: 21
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 1st August 1917
• Commemorated at: Bedford House Cem Encl 4
  Panel Ref: XI.AA.28

Thomas Edward was born on the 02nd February 1896 and was baptised the 01st March 1896 at All Saints Liverpool. He was the son of Thomas Edward Seddon and his wife Jane (nee O’Neill) who were married 12th November 1894 at All Saints Liverpool.

On the 1901 Census the family are living at 3 Luther Street, Everton. Thomas' father Thomas E. is a 32 year old joiner/carpenter, whilst his mother, Jane, is aged 28, their children, all born in Liverpool are listed as; Thomas E. is 5, Florence is 2, and James is 8 months. 

His father died in 1909.

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 40 St Martin’s Cottages, Liverpool. His mother, Jane, is a widow aged 38, born in Greenock, Scotland in 1873 and is a charwoman. She had been married for 16 years and had six children of which one had died (Victoria Alexandrina). Those declared as in the household were; Thomas Edward aged 15, born 1896 is a messenger, Florence aged 12, born 1899, Euphemia aged 8 born 1903 and John Henry aged 6, born 1905 are at school. 

Thomas Edward enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 20th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Corporal No 58646 when he was killed in action on the 01^st August, 1917 aged 21 during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

The 20th Battalion diary gives details of the circumstances that the Battalion found themselves in during the early phases of the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). Having taken part in the initial fighting of 31st July 1917 there is a general write up in relation to the period 01st -08th August and specifics solely from the 03rd August. As such it is impossible to say exactly how each of the men who fell on 01st or 2nd August met their death.

20^th Battalion Diary 01^st August – 08^th August

The Battalion continued to hold the position taken up on the morning of 31^st July. After the first day the weather was very wet and the going very difficult, but the men’s spirits remained wonderfully good. From time to time there was very heavy enemy shelling and in addition to this machine guns and snipers were very active. The work of communication was extremely difficult and the wires to Companies and to Battalions on our flanks were repeatedly cut and were only kept going by most excellent work by our linesmen, who suffered very heavy casualties as also did the runners.  

Thomas Edward now rests at Bedford House Cemetery Encl 4, Belgium.

Zillebeke village and most of the commune were in the hands of Commonwealth forces for the greater part of the First World War, but the number of cemeteries in the neighbourhood bears witness to the fierce fighting in the vicinity from 1914 to 1918.

Bedford House, sometimes known as Woodcote House, were the names given by the Army to the Chateau Rosendal, a country house in a small wooded park with moats. Although it never fell into German hands, the house and the trees were gradually destroyed by shell fire. It was used by field ambulances and as the headquarters of brigades and other fighting units, and charcoal pits were dug there from October 1917.

In time, the property became largely covered by small cemeteries; five enclosures existed at the date of the Armistice, but the graves from No.1 were then removed to White House Cemetery, St. Jean, and those from No.5 to Aeroplane Cemetery, Ypres.

ENCLOSURE No.2 was begun in December 1915, and used until October 1918. After the Armistice, 437 graves were added, all but four of which came from the Ecole de Bienfaisance and Asylum British Cemeteries, both at Ypres.

ENCLOSURE No.3, the smallest, was used from February 1915 to December 1916; the burials made in August-October 1915 were largely carried out by the 17th Division.

ENCLOSURE No.4, the largest, was used from June 1916 to February 1918, largely by the 47th (London) Division, and after the Armistice it was enlarged when 3,324 graves were brought in from other burial grounds and from the battlefields of the Ypres Salient. Almost two-thirds of the graves are unidentified.

ENCLOSURE No.6 was made in the 1930s from the graves that were continuing to be found on the battlefield of the Ypres Salient. This enclosure also contains Second World War burials, all of them soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, who died in the defence of the Ypres-Comines canal and railway at the end of May 1940. The canal lies on high ground on the west side of the cemetery.

Commonwealth casualties buried in the following smaller cemeteries were either concentrated into Bedford House Cemetery after the war or if lost, are now commemorated in Bedford House Cemetery:-

ASYLUM BRITISH CEMETERY, YPRES, was established in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital (the Hospice du Sacre Coeur) a little West of the railway station, between the Poperinghe road and the railway. It was used by Field Ambulances and fighting units from February 1915, to November 1917, and it contained the graves of 265 soldiers from the United Kingdom, nine from Canada, seven from Australia and two of the British West Indies Regiment.

BOESINGHE FRENCH CEMETERY No.2, a little South of Bard Cottage, contained the grave of one soldier from Canada.

DROOGENBROODHOEK GERMAN CEMETERY, MOORSLEDE, contained the graves of two United Kingdom soldiers who fell in October 1914.

ECOLE DE BIENFAISANCE CEMETERY, YPRES, was on the North side of the Poperinghe road, immediately West of the railway, in the grounds of a school (later rebuilt). It was used by Field Ambulances in 1915-1917, and it contained the graves of 133 soldiers from the United Kingdom, three from Canada, three from Australia and one of the British West Indies Regiment.

KERKHOVE CHURCHYARD contained the graves of five United Kingdom soldiers, who fell in October and November 1918, and seven German.

POELCAPELLE GERMAN CEMETERY No.4, between Langemarck and the Poelcapelle-St. Julien road, contained the graves of 52 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1914 and 1916.

ZONNEBEKE BRITISH CEMETERIES No.1 and No.3 were on the South and North sides respectively of the Broodseinde-Zonnebeke road. Zonnebeke was occupied by the Germans on the 22 October 1914, retaken by the French on the following day, and evacuated at the beginning of May 1915; retaken by British troops on the 26 September 1917; evacuated again in April 1918; and retaken by Belgian troops on the 28th September, 1918. Four British Cemeteries were made by the Germans on the Broodseinde-Zonnebeke road; No.1 contained the graves of 31 United Kingdom soldiers (mainly 2nd East Surrey) who fell in April 1915, and No.3 those of 69 who fell in April, and May 1915.

In all, 5,139 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War are buried or commemorated in the enclosures of Bedford House Cemetery. 3,011 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate a number of casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials name casualties buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. Second World War burials number 69 (3 of which are unidentified). There are 2 Germans buried here.

The cemetery was designed by W.C. Von Berg.

He was reported killed in the Liverpool Daily Post on 14th September 1917

Soldiers Effects and Pension to mother Jane.

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