With thanks to Jim and Sheila Maxwell of Harlech Library and Institute, Wales and Professor Tim Kendall of Exeter University, who advised Jim to contact me to find biographical information about W.G.Thomas. My initial suggestions and research (see post on 15th April 2021) have been added to by Jim. Thanks are also due to John Vallance, to David Ward, Archivist of Oswestry School, to Annette Fulford in Canada and to Al Poole, a Trustee of the Royal Welch Fusilier Museum for their kind help in filling in the details. And, more recently I contacted William's grandson, Stephen J. Parry-Thomas, who sent me a WW1 photograph that features W.G. Thomas in uniform
William attended Oswestry School from 1895 to 1902, where he joined the School and College Cricket and Football XIs. He went on to study at Exeter College, Oxford. He became a Master at Walsall Grammar School and Played fullback for the Corinthians Football Club and also played cricket for the local cricket team.
William went to Canada in March 1914 for health reasons, travelling from Liverpool to Halifax in Canada on the Royal Mail Ship ship the “Empress of Ireland”
When war broke later that year, William enlisted at Valcartier, Quebec and served initially as a Sergeant – No. 918 - with the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. William was commisioned as a Temporary Second Lieutenant into the 9th Royal Welsh Fusiliers Regiment on 22 July 1915* and posted to France in July 1915, where he served as a Machine Gun Officer. In March 1916 he was promoted to Temporary Captain. William was awarded a Military Cross in the January 1917 Birthday Honours List: “Temp Captain William Geoffrey Thomas, Royal Welsh Fusiliers.” Apparently, William also served with the 5th Battalion of the South Staffords.
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| W.G. is in the middle row, seated, in the middle |
After the war, William returned to teaching at Queen Mary’s Grammar School in Walsall in 1919. In June 1927, he married Rita Prentice in Walsall and their son, John G.P. Thomas, was born in April 1929. According to Stephen, John became a ceramic artist and potter and did TV work and was widely respected in his field.
By 1939, William was the Second Master at Queen Mary's Grammar School, where he taught until 1945 - in all 38 years.
William, who was an amateur artist as well as a poet, died in 1962.
William’s WW1 poetry collection “Amateur Soldiers” by W.G. Thomas was published by Old Royalty Book Publishers, London in 1928. He later published another collection of his poems, entitled ‘Pass of the Acorn Cups’.
William’s brother, John Godfrey Parry Thomas, also attended Oswestry School from 1895-1902. Known as "Parry Thomas", he became a well-known engineer and racing car driver - forerunner of Major Henry Segrave and Malcolm Campbell.
John ParryThomas was killed on 3rd March 1927 attempting to break his own world speed record on the Pendine Sands in Wales. Pendine Sands is 7 miles (11 km) of beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales. It stretches west to east from Gilman Point to Laugharne Sands.
Incidentally, RMS “Empress of Ireland” was an ocean-going liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian collier “Storstad” in the early hours of 29th May 1914. Although the ship was equipped with watertight compartments and, in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster two years earlier, carried more than enough lifeboats for all onboard, she foundered in only fourteen minutes. Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died, making it the worst peacetime marine disaster in Canadian history.
*Note: After the 1881 Childers Reforms, the Regiment's official title was The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, but "Welch" continued to be used informally until restored in 1920 by Army Order No.56.
Stephen J. Pattry-Thomas said: "W G Thomas is in fact William George Parry-Thomas my grandfather who passed away in 1962. He stopped using the 'Parry' part of his name when his brother, John Godfrey Parry-Thomas, was killed on Pennine sands in 1927.
Sources:
Find my Past
Free BMD
Catherine W. Reilly.- “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New Yorik, 1978) p. page 312.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland
Information from David Ward, Archivist of Oswestry School from “A List of Old Oswestrians”, in R. R. Oakley's book “A History of Oswestry School”, published in 1957.
Image of W.G. Thomas from John Vallance
Photograph of W.G. Thomas in uniform WW1 kindly supplied by his grandson,Stephen J Parry-Thomas
Annette Fulford is a Canadian genealogist/family historian who specializes in First World War Bride research.
Harlech Library and Institute is a small, Century-old charity in Wales, set up by Jim and Sheila Maxwell as a community reference library.
“The Gentlemen of England” by W.G. Thomas
The gentlemen of England
Have answered to the call,
And city desks are silent
And lonely is the hall:
The ploughboy’s left his horses,
Deserted lies the mine,
And every day they’re making
New batallions of the line.
The gentlemen of England
Are swinging down the street,
Four abreast with rifles slung
And music in their feet:
And the Colonel he is smiling,
For he wonders if they know
His thoughts of them the morning
They first formed up in row.
The gentlemen of England
Are going overseas:
And Wiltshire trains are puffing
Longside Southampton’s quays:
And mules are raising murder,
But they find they have to go:
See the transport sergeant smiling
As the last is slung below.
The gentlemen of England
Are lying dead in France,
Or facing guns and mortars
With a haughty arrogance.
But the Colonel’s almost crying
As he thinks of what he knew –
But he had to send them over
While the main attack got through.
The gentlemen of England
Are sticking it in France:
They’ve filled the old batallion,
And they’re ready to advance.
And the captians all are smiling,
And the men are full of go:
This time they get their own back –
They are part of the Big Show.
