John Sidney Thompson was born at Oswestry in 1894. His parents were George and Annie (nee Sanger), they would have 5 children, George, Gertrude, Him, Lucy and youngest Harry, who would die in 1903. The family lived at 8 Rope Walk and, by 1911, at 8 Woodlands Terrace, Castle Street in Oswestry. Their father worked as a French Polisher, John, who was also known as Jack, and elder brother George would follow him into the trade. George became a polisher and John an upholsterer, serving his apprenticeship and then working for Messrs Jones and Son, Church Street, Oswestry. John was a churchgoer and a regular at Miss Henry’s Bible Class at St Oswald’s Church. He was also a ‘boy soldier’ and drummer boy – he had joined the Shropshire Yeomanry and then, in 1908 aged 14, had continued in the 1/4 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry Territorial Force. At the outbreak of war, however, John chose to volunteer for the Oswestry Pals and enlisted in 6 Bn KSLI. He went over to France with the battalion on 24 July 1915

John was killed in action on 3 August 1916 at Serre during the Somme Offensive. He was hit by a German rifle grenade. In a letter sent to his parents, Pioneer Sergeant J Davies of the KSLI wrote ‘It is with the deepest regret that I am writing these few lines to inform you that your son was killed by the grenade this morning (the letter is dated August 3) and four others were seriously wounded. I am burying him this evening and his platoon is going to carry him. He will be buried in a very nice cemetery just behind our lines. Hoping you will be consoled in your great sorrow, all his comrades’ and my deepest sympathy in your great loss’. The battalion War Diary records 2 ORs killed, the other man was Private 11580 S Rogers (CWGC) from Shrewsbury. They are buried next to each other in Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colinchamps. John’s headstone reads ‘Thy will be done’. He is also commemorated at St Oswald’s Church.

John’s brother George also served, as Corporal 12259 in 6 Bn KSLI – they had enlisted together in the ‘Pals’. When John was killed George was at Shrewsbury Depot, he survived the war.

John is also mentioned in a letter home by a fellow ‘Pal’ who had been KIA a few months before – Lance Corporal 24296 William H Lewis. In his last letter home to his brothers and sisters, written when the battalion was in billets at Poperinghe on 27 February 1916, William Lewis wrote: ‘We have lost a lot of lads that came out with me. I haven’t seen Gardener for 2 weeks. Tell George Thompson I saw his son   Jack (John Sydney Thompson). He is alright and looks well. I should like to find Percy Phillips  grave. He was buried where we now are but there are so many all over the place and those that have money and come out here after the war will see some sights’. This mention of ‘tourism’ seems insightful. Today, tourism is a mainstay of the local economies around the battlefields and it was Thomas Cook & Son which organised the first ‘battlefield tour’ in 1919. William goes on ‘…they say the Germans are bringing up bigger guns on our front. I wish it was all over. It is awful. We have had a lot of snow here, it has been snowing all the week and it must be very bad in the trenches’.

Acknowledgements.

References and Sources

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