Pte 42228 Fred Leonard Thomas

• Age: 24
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: 12 SUFFOLK REGT
• Died on Friday 12th April 1918
• Commemorated at: Ploegsteert Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 3

Frederick Leonard Thomas was born in the December quarter of 1893, the son of William Alexander Thomas and his wife Frances Agnes (née Montgomery). His father had been widowed, and left with a young son, William, born  in 1882. Fred’s parents, both born in Liverpool, married in 1887 and had five children. Fred had older brothers Francis Leo born in 1888, and Herbert Christopher 1892, and younger siblings Austin Robert 1896 and Mary Frances, born in 1898. 

At the time of the 1901 census, the family is living at 3 Brighton Road, Waterloo, the premises of The Railway Hotel, where his father is the manager.  They have six children at home.  His father is 49, his mother is 35, half brother William is 19, a  mechanical engineer, Fred is 7.  They have a 23 year old servant/barman, Francis Milne. 

His father died in 1905, aged 54 and his mother remarried James Morgan in 1906. Their son Joseph was born in 1908. 

By 1911 Frederick and three of his siblings are living with his mother and stepfather in nine rooms at 6 St. Domingo Grove, Everton, with a domestic servant.  James Morgan, 37, is a shipwright/employer, his mother Frances gives her age as 43, their son Joseph is 2.  Herbert, 18, is an apprentice in the fruit trade, Fred, 17, is an apprentice ship broker, Austin, 14, and Mary, 12, are at school.

Fred Leonard enlisted in Liverpool and joined the 18th Battalion of THe King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 17092.The amount of the War Gratuity as well as his regimental number suggest that Fred enlisted soon after war was declared, in August or September 1914.

From the 23^rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03^rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

He shipped to France one month after his battalion, on 10th December 1915. t some point he was transferred to the 12th (East Anglian) Suffolk Regiment  

The 12th Bn was raised at Bury St. Edmunds in July 1915, as a bantam battalion.  In November 1915 they joined the 121st Brigade, 40th Division. They arrived in France in June 1916 and went into the front line near Loos.  In November 1916 they were in action at the Ancre on the Somme.  In 1917 they saw action during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, the capture of Fifteen Ravine, Villers Plouich, Beaucamp and La Vacquerie, and at Cambrai, including the capture of Bourlon Wood in November.   

In April 1918 the 12th Suffolks were at Erquinghem-Lys, just southwest of Armentières.  The Battle of the Lys from 7th to 29th April was part of the German Spring Offensive in Flanders.  

The German bombardment opened on the evening of 7 April, against the southern part of the Allied line between Armentières and Festubert.  The barrage continued until dawn on 9 April. The Sixth Army then attacked with eight divisions.  The German assault struck the Portuguese Second Division, which was overrun and withdrew after hours of heavy fighting. The British 40th Division (including the 12th Suffolks), to the north of the Portuguese, collapsed under the German attack and fell back to the north.

Fred was declared Missing between 8th - 12th April 1918. 

His mother requested information in the Liverpool Echo on 25th July 1918 in the “Missing - Information Wanted” Column:

“Missing since April 12, Lce-Corpl. F.L. Thomas 42228 Suffolks (late 2nd Liverpool Pals). News gratefully received by his Mother, 6, St. Domingo Grove, Everton.” 

His death was presumed as killed in action on 12/04/1918 aged 24. His body was never recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as Fred is commeorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial at Panel 3.

The PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL commemorates more than 11,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in this sector during the First World War and have no known grave. The memorial serves the area from the line Caestre-Dranoutre-Warneton, in Belgium, to the north, to Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes, in France, to the south, including the towns of Hazebrouck, Merville, Bailleul and Armentieres, the Forest of Nieppe, and Ploegsteert Wood. The original intention had been to erect the memorial in Lille.

Most of those commemorated by the memorial did not die in major offensives, such as those which took place around Ypres to the north, or Loos to the south. Most were killed in the course of the day-to-day trench warfare which characterised this part of the line, or in small scale set engagements, usually carried out in support of the major attacks taking place elsewhere. It does not include the names of officers and men of Canadian or Indian regiments (they are found on the Memorials at Ypres, Vimy and Neuve-Chapelle) and those lost at the Battle of Aubers Ridge, 9 May 1915, who were involved in the Southern Pincer (the 1st, 2nd, Meerut and 47th Divisions - they are commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial).

BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION, in which the memorial stands, was begun in June 1916 and used continuously until September 1917. At the Armistice, the extension comprised Plot I only, but Plots II and III were added in 1930 when graves were brought in from Rosenberg Chateau Military Cemetery and Extension, about 1 Km to the north-west, when it was established that these sites could not be acquired in perpetuity. Rosenberg Chateau Military Cemetery was used by fighting units from November 1914 to August 1916. The extension was begun in May 1916 and used until March 1918. Together, the Rosenberg Chateau cemetery and extension were sometimes referred to as 'Red Lodge'.

Berks Cemetery Extension now contains 876 First World War burials.

HYDE PARK CORNER (ROYAL BERKS) CEMETERY is separated from Berks Cemetery Extension by a road. It was begun in April 1915 by the 1st/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment and was used at intervals until November 1917. Hyde Park Corner was a road junction to the north of Ploegsteert Wood. Hill 63 was to the north-west and nearby were the 'Catacombs', deep shelters capable of holding two battalions, which were used from November 1916 onwards.

The cemetery contains 83 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and four German war graves.

The cemetery, cemetery extension and memorial were designed by Harold Chalton Bradshaw, with sculpture by Gilbert Ledward. The memorial was unveiled by the Duke of Brabant on 7 June 1931.

It is not known when his family was informed of his presumed death. 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £21 went to his mother Frances Morgan and brother Francis.  

Fred is commemorated in Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 37 

His brother Herbert served in the Mercantile Marine Reserve, and in 1917 was a deck hand on H.M. Yacht Warrior.

Warrior, a luxurious steam yacht, was built in 1904 for Frederick W. Vanderbilt, a scion of the Vanderbilt railway and shipping empire. In early 1914, the 1,266-ton, 284 feet-long yacht was bought by Harry Payne Whitney. In early 1915, Whitney, a philanthropist businessman and sportsman, and Vanderbilt’s nephew by marriage, sold the ship to his brother-in-law, Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who renamed her Wayfarer. He did not own the ship for long— Alfred Vanderbilt was drowned when RMS Lusitania was sunk by U-20 on 7 May 1915—and the yacht was bought from his estate in 1916 by Alexander S. Cochran. Cochran, a wealthy philanthropist and yachtsman, restored her original name, Warrior.

Warrior was hired by the Admiralty in February 1917 for service on the North American and West Indies Station and, armed with two 12-pounder 3-inch naval guns, served as HMS Warrior, an armed yacht.  Her first deployment was to the Caribbean in July 1917.  The crew was a mix of Royal Navy, Royal Naval Reserve, Mercantile Marine Reserve and Royal Marine Light Infantry. 

HMS Warrior spent the first part of her war in the Caribbean. She arrived there from Bermuda in July 1917, spending most of the next six months in the Lesser Antilles but also visiting Jamaica and Belize.  On 19th January 1918 she sailed from St. Lucia back to Bermuda, where she arrived on 23rd January. The next three weeks were spent there, cleaning and preparing the yacht for her role as the flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Lowther Grant KCB.

Vice Admiral Grant raised his flag on the morning of 16th February 1918 and at noon HMS Warrior sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia.  She arrived at Halifax three days later, where she remained until she sailed for Washington on 23rd March. She sailed down the eastern seaboard, coming alongside at Washington on the morning of 27th March; she would remain berthed at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers at Washington Barracks as Vice Admiral Grant’s flagship for the rest of the war.

In addition to the routine of ship’s maintenance, the yacht’s complement enjoyed liberty in Washington and took part in a number of ceremonies and social functions.

The first cases of influenza were observed in Washington, D.C. in August 1918. They were initially confined to the naval station and local army camps but by the end of September civilian cases were increasing and, in early October, schools were closed and four emergency relief stations and an emergency hospital were opened.

Herbert was sent to hospital on 8th October and succumbed to pneumonia on 22nd October 1918.  He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, outside of Washington, D.C.

The ship’s log records 46 discharges to hospital between 6th August and 22nd December—a substantial majority of her crew.  Seven of these men succumbed to influenza, or to related complications in the New Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C.  They were buried in Arlington National Cemetery, outside of Washington, D.C., the burial parties in all cases were provided by Warrior’s crew.

The graves were originally marked with similar headstones to those used throughout Arlington National Cemetery but have since been replaced with Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones.  (Information on the Warrior from ww1sacrifice.com.)

The pension card in the name of his mother Frances Morgan, at 6 St. Domingo Grove, shows that she was awarded a pension for both sons, amount unknown.

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