Thomas Glazzard

War Service

Young Thomas would have been in his late teens at the start of WW1. Along with many more local young men, Thomas enlisted at Normanton and his mining experience would be put to good use when he joined the 251st Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers. His knowledge of working underground in the mines had, no doubt, an influence on the decision of the recruiting officer to assign Thomas to the Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers. The date when Thomas arrived in France is unknown. The 251st Tunnelling Company was located around the Cuinchy-Cambrin-Auchy-Givenchy area. Givenchy was a prize position and had to be defended and consequently the 251st Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers had been fortifying the area with machine gun nests and deep dugouts, in addition to excavating a three hundred metre of tunnel which would house two battalions.
For an audio recording of the daily activities, made by a fellow Sapper of Thomas’, go to jeremybanning.co.uk/tag/cuinchy on the internet.
The Company blew the last mine fired by the British near Givenchy on 10 August 1917. By April 1918 the Company was in the area between Lys and La Bassee Canal, working on defensive schemes and it took part in the successful defence of Givenchy when attacked that month. Thomas was injured in this action and he died of his wounds on 19 April 1918, aged 23 years.
Thomas is buried in Woburn Abbey Cemetery, Cuinchy, France.
Thomas’s father and mother added the following inscription to his headstone:
“Although thy face we could not see, we ever will remember thee.”

Family Life

Thomas was born in Altofts on 4 February 1895. Thomas’s father, also called Thomas, had moved from Staffordshire to Altofts where he met Mary Frith. They were married on 24 August 1890 in Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Altofts. Thomas and Mary lived in Hatterley’s Buildings when Mary gave birth to their first child in 1891. Sometime later they moved into their own home at 41 Silkstone Row, Altofts. In 1893 Elizabeth, their second child, was born followed by young Thomas, Harry in 1898, David in 1900, Richard in 1902, Phyllis in 1907 and Benjamin in 1909. Prior to 1911 the family had moved home again to live at 25 East Street, Altofts.
East Street was a small row of houses in an area known locally as “The Buildings”. Thomas’s father worked underground as a hewer, presumably at Pope and Pearson’s West Riding Colliery. The colliery owners had built houses in Altofts to accommodate the influx of men who worked at the colliery. In 1911 young Thomas, now aged 16 years, and his brother Harry, aged 13 years, were also working underground, both employed as pony drivers.
After a few years of working underground young men would progress to working at the coal face.