On the 11th Day of the 11th Month

In Memory of
Lance Corporal THOMAS SMITH GLASSON

15430, 11th Bn., Border Regiment
who died age 31
on 31 July 1916
Son of Mrs. Sarah Glasson, of London Rd., Carlisle; husband of Ethel Yule (formerly Glasson), of 57, Oswald St., London Rd., Carlisle.
Remembered with honour
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

He was my Grandma Yule's first husband.  He died six months after she had lost her first child, Nora, aged five, to diptheria.  They had two other daughters - my Auntie Betty and Auntie Ella.  I can't imagine how terrible that time must have been for her.

The family story of his death is that he and a young boy soldier had both been injured by a German shell - Thomas having lost a leg - and that when the medical orderlies got to them he insisted that the young boy be taken to safety first.  When the stretcher team went back there was nothing left of him - presumably he had been hit by another shell.  My Grandmother - who, I believe, was not a fanciful woman at all - said that at the time of his death she heard an enormous explosion whilst she was in the garden and that she ran back into the house fearing a gas leak.  She saw him lying on the settee with a leg missing and ran towards him.  Before she could reach him he disappeared.  How true either of these stories are I don't know as my Grandmother died when I was only three.  I'd like to believe they are both true.

Lest we forget.

Comments

[Erna Yule]

What a lovely tribute Elizabeth.
Grandma Yule would have been so proud of you for remembering and so am I.
Mum.

[lindsey]

What a brave man. The war must have been full of these stories of valour. My husband has a great uncle whose body was never found although his men saw him fall and they later went to find him. Everyone was remarkable in their own way and deserves to be remembered.