Thomas was born on 24th February 1879 in Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland. His parents were The Reverend Alexander McRae Craig, a Church Minister, and his wife, Margaret Craig. Thomas had the following siblings: Elizabeth I, b. 1871, Marion M., b. 1873, Maggie G., b. 1875, William, b. 1877, Hester, b. 1878, Eleonora, b. 1881, John, b. 1884, Alice Agnes B., b. 1886 and Archibald C., b. 1889.
Educated at Kelso High School and Edinburgh University, Thomas studied chemistry and qualified as a chemist. He began studying medicine in 1905, qualified and was in practice at St. John’s Tron, Ayrshire when war broke out. He volunteered to join the Royal Army Medical Corps and was commissioned as a Captain in July 1915. Posted initially to Malta, in 1917 Thomas was sent to Alexandria, Egypt .
Thomas was wounded while tending a wounded fellow officer at Beit Ur El Tahta. Appearing to recover sufficiently to be sent back to Britain, Thomas was travelling home on a Hospital Ship but died on the way. He is remembered on Chatby Memorial in Alexandria, El Eskenderiya, Egypt
MEMORIAL ID 14695887 several women of WW1 )
Thomas’s WW1 poetry collection “Poems” (Tingling, Liverpool, 1919) was published posthumously by his family.
Sources:
Catherine Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978), p. 98
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