Wilson | Thomas
Biography
Thomas Wilson (Service No. 3185445) was killed in action on 19/10/1944 aged 34. He was a Lance Sergeant in the 1stBattalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was initially buried at the Cemetery A. vd Wijst, Overloon and subsequently re-interred in grave II. B. 10 at the Overloon Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery on 15 May 1947.
Military career
Thomas was the son of Thomas and Polly Wilson. He was born on 5 November 1909 in the Benwell area of Newcastle upon Tyne. By 1928 the family had moved to Yorkshire and his parents were living at 13 Strafford Street, Darton West, Near Barnsley.
Thomas (Jnr) was initially employed as a coal miner, but in October 1928 he applied at Sheffield to join the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Although the Regiment was not strictly open to new recruits, they allowed him to enlist in it on 23/10/1928. The Recruiting Officer justified his decision by describing him as “a smart, respectable, and intelligent man – desirous of joining the above mentioned regiment and declines to accept any other. States that his Father served in the KSOB for a number of years.” He signed up initially as a Private for 7 years in the colours followed by 5 years in the reserves.
It is thought that he initially served in the 1st Battalion but was transferred to the 2nd Battalion on 25/2/1930 when he was posted to India where he served for 6 years. During this time, he was appointed to the rank of Lance Corporal on 1/11/1932 but reverted to the rank of Private at his own request two months later.
He was permitted to extend his colour service for a period of six months from when he arrived back in the UK on 26/3/1936 for the purpose of attending a Course of Vocational Training at the Army Vocational Training Centre at Aldershot. The aim of this was to teach soldiers leaving the Army a trade before joining the Reserves. He was allowed to leave here earlier than scheduled to join the Army Reserve on 27/6/1936 as he had found work with the Pressed Steel Co. Ltd. Cowley, Oxford in the trade he had learnt. This was a car body manufacturing business founded at Cowley in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, Budd Corporation of Philadelphia USA and a British / American bank J. Henry Schroder & Co. Morris later transferred his interest to his company, Morris Motors Limited. Pressed Steel was later incorporated into the British Motor Corporation and then British Leyland. The Cowley plant is still in existence and is where BMW’s Mini is assembled.
An Army document during this period of service shows that he changed his Next of Kin to his mother, Polly, who was now living at 17 Hawthorne Crescent, Dodworth, Barnsley. Perhaps his father had passed away.
Thomas gave his new address on entering the Reserves as 42 Wilkins Road, Cowley, Oxford. During his time in Oxford, he must have met his wife to be – Nancy Buckley – who was born on 28/7/1909 as Annie Buckley but known as Nancy. It is understood that she was Irish, but it is not known when she came to England. They married in Oxford on 27/2/1938 and had a daughter, April V Wilson, in the Spring of 1939. By June 1939 Thomas was contacted by the Army with a view to being available for training. At this point, they were living at 71 Croft Road, New Marston, Oxford.
With the declaration of war on 1st September, 1939, Thomas was mobilized at Berwick on Tweed the following day and was posted to the 1st Battalion of the KSOB on 3rd September, again as a Private. In September 1939 Nancy was living at 71 Croft Road with her young baby and also her unmarried older sister, Nora Buckley, who was born on 4/7/1907 who was helping her in the house. Nora (or Nonie as she was known to family) also had a twin who was called Mary at birth but known as Mollie.
Thomas was sent with his Battalion as part of the British Expeditionary Force to France on 3/10/1939. They were eventually pushed back to Dunkirk from where he was evacuated on 31/5/1940.
The Battalion spent the next four years training in the UK. Thomas himself is known to have attended an Assault Course in 1941, a course in Battle Drill in June 1942 and trained as an instructor in Small Arms Training in 1943.
During this period, he also received some promotions. He was appointed first as an unpaid Lance Corporal on 19/3/1940 and then as a Paid position on 1 June. On 19/7/1940 he was promoted to Acting Corporal. On 12/11/1940 he was attached to the 9th Battalion of the “Buffs” (the Royal East Kent Regiment). It is not known how long this attachment lasted but it was probably only for a brief period. He rose to Acting Lance Sergeant in January 1942. A Lance Sergeant is a Corporal who is being assessed for promotion to Sergeant. He was duly appointed to Acting Sergeant on 28/11/1942 and War Substantive Sergeant in 1943.
He embarked for France on 5/6/1944 and took part with his Battalion in the D-Day landings in Normandy the following day. They played their part in Operation Goodwood in July as part of the larger battle for Caen. Thomas reverted to Corporal, at his own request, on 14/7/1944.
The Battalion saw some action at Vire on 9 August but was held in reserve during attacks at Tinchebray. From 20 August to 3 September they had a period of training. Thomas was again appointed as Acting Lance Sergeant on 20 August. From 5 to 16 September they were in Etrepangy where they again rested, receiving a further 30 Other Ranks as reinforcements to add to the 6 officers and 91 Other Ranks they had already received since D-Day.
They then moved quickly past Brussels and through Leuven to support the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles and 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment as they crossed the Meuse Escault Canal and on into Belgium and the Netherlands, reaching Milheeze on 28 September. At this point the war diary mentions that the bath unit arrived and “the whole battalion felt clean again for the first time since Etrepagny”, which was over 3 weeks previously.
On 1 October they reached St Hubert where they were very well received by the inhabitants. They remained there until 12 October. They spent their time training but also had time for relaxation. A soccer match was arranged against the Regiment’s 6th Battalion on St Hubert’s football field. They lost 4 – 1 and the Pipe Band played at half time and at the end of the match. They also had two film shows on the 10th and 11th. The diary notes that they left St Hubert on 12 October after a pleasant stay of 10 days.
On 12 October they reached an assembly area just west of St Anthonis. On that day, the 1st Suffolks succeeded in capturing Overloon and took up a position just to the south of the town. The following day, the 1st KOSB attacked the wood to the south west of Overloon and reached the south of the wood, though coming under fire as they reached it. They remained there the following day while the Royal Ulster Regiment and Lincolns attacked the wood further east.
On the 15th they moved a little further south and on the 16th continued south, expecting to remain there that night. Instead, they were ordered to take over from the 4th Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry east of Overloon in the area near Smakt, with the companies lining up north to south on the west of the railway. They only took over the position at 1930 hours in very heavy rain with the reconnaissance parties hardly able to see their positions before dark. On 17October the War Diary states that the battalion suffered its worst shelling and mortaring so far. Their time was spent patrolling the area west of the railway and monitoring enemy positions. The heavy shelling continued on the 18th and 19th. On the 19th, the war diary mentions successes in combating enemy activities by means of artillery fire and establishing an Observation Post in a farm called “Hoeve de Knol”. However, this was the day that, very near to this farm, Thomas Wilson was killed. In total he had served 15 years and 362 days in the Army.
Along with Thomas, Edward Fenn, William Cluett, and Percy Chambers, comrades from the same regiment, also died that day.
Our foundation received a letter from Edward Fenn’s family, clearly describing the dramatic events of that day. The sergeant described in the letter is most likely Thomas Wilson and the two others William Cluett and Percy Chambers. The graves concentration reports of these servicemen support this belief.
An excerpt from this letter:
“We were fighting the Germans in a very large forest and managed to drive them from it out into the open country so our company stayed at that for a rest. The Germans were out into the open on a railway bank and we were in the forest. On the end of the forest facing the Germans was a farm yard and in there was the platoon which Ted (Edward Fenn) was in.
On the morning of the 19 Oct at 10 o’clock Ted was ordered to take a patrol from the farm yard to a certain spot out in the open, in which he started to do as he gets well into the open he saw a gang of Germans coming towards him, and he at once told his men to get down a keep still as he was going to wait until the Germans where near and then try and take them all prisoners, well, everything was going fine and when the Germans got near, then things became to happen, one of the men lost his nerve and jumped up and ran away, it was then that panic broke out among the men and one more man ran away leaving Ted with two men, and three men against a gang of Germans was hope-less and there fore there was only one thing to do every man for himself, and as the three heroes got up two were killed, and Ted was seen running holding his stomach.
Meanwhile the first man who ran away was running and falling over trying to get back to the farm house, and a sergeant (very likely Thomas Wilson) run out to meet him and as he did, he was shot by a machine gun and killed at once. All the time this was going on our machine gun from the house was firing at the Germans, who at once aimed their gun on to the farm house, it was then Bill (another comrade), got a bullet in the left arm, and a man standing next to him got hit in the groan.
The first man to run away reached the farm house ok, at that time we who was at H.Q at the time had got the news of what had happened, and straight away a rescue party formed to try and get the dead and wounded in. We managed to get the men from the farm in but as we try’d to get the dead sergeant and Ted in (who we thought was still alive) we was fired on by the Germans, it was then the officer said it was hope-less and we would have to wait until night came. Dark-ness came and out went the rescue party we found the sergeant and brought him in as 3 hours later we made up our minds to have the 3rd attempt to get Ted in and at 10.30 that night we found him, dead.”
The next day on 20 october 1944 they were buried in a field grave at Begraafplaats A. vd Wijst in Overloon and later, close to each other, reburied on 13 May 1947 at Overloon War Cemetery.
The full letter can be read in the biography of Edward Fenn.
His wife was informed of his death on 1/11/1944. She was awarded a pension and also an allowance for her child which was to be paid from 5/2/1945. She was also sent his personal effects in April 1945. These consisted of a diary, 15 photographs, a comb in a case (broken) and 4 silk butterflies in an envelope. She was still living at 71 Croft Road at this time.
Thomas’ daughter, April, married Anthony P G McGuigan in 1959 and went on to have three children, Thomas’ grandchildren.
Nonie and Mollie Buckley continued to live with Nancy at 71 Croft Road, New Marston, Oxford until their deaths. Nonie died on 21 January 1980, Mollie on 6 January 1989 and Nancy on 7 July 1989.
military awards
Thomas was awarded the following medals: the 1939-43 Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal and
War Medal 1939/45.
