William Norman Thomas was born 31 January 1888, the second son of William Hopkins and Alice Thomas. His father was  the proprietor of WH Thomas & Sons – Contractor & Builder, Timber Merchant and Brick Manufacturer with premises on Salop Road.  Norman had two elder brothers, Harold and Second Lieutenant Edward Thomas as well as elder sisters Alice and Marie and younger sisters Hilda and Ellen. The family lived at 8 Salop Road, Oswestry and later at ‘Leeswood’, Croeswylan on the Welshpool Road. Like many of the officers he was a public school boy and had attended Reading and Wellingborough Schools. After school he decided to enter the building trade. He was apprenticed to Messrs Muirhead, in Newport, and also spent some time with Messrs Thompson & Brierly in Bury, Lancashire, before entering his father’s firm, becoming a Director when it became a limited company. He was an ardent motorist, excellent with racquet at lawn tennis,  a good cricketer and hockey player and had represented Shropshire  (see also George Victor Blake). William was also a first rate skier and won the ‘Golden Ski’ (1913) in his first season at Vilea, Switzerland, the first Englishman to do so and setting a world’s record at 1min 27 secs.

Martinsyde G 100

In September 1914 Norman enlisted as a Trooper in the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry and was promoted to Sergeant in December and served as a dispatch rider. He was selected as suitable for officer training soon after and went on to gain his commission and was posted to 3 Bn KSLI in June 1915. This was the training and reserve battalion for the KSLI based in Shrewsbury depot. Before his posting he took and  passed his Flying Certificate, in August 1915, at Beatty School, Hendon. He was attached to RFC stationed at Dover before flying over to France on 1 March 1916  and posted to 27 Squadron ‘The Flying Elephants’, Royal Flying Corps.

The 27 Squadron was formed at Hounslow in November 1915. He was one of the original pilots. They went over to France with 11 aircraft in March 1916 and were based at St Omer and Aire (Treizennes). The squadron was equipped with Martinsyde G 100 aeroplanes, a single-seater fighter bomber. It was however very slow with only 120 horse power engine and had poor manoeuvrability – hence it soon acquired a nom de guerre of ‘The Elephant’. It did not perform well in dog fights against the better German machines and gained a high casualty rate. It was soon replaced by Martinsyde G102. 27 Squadron was the only squadron entirely equipped with G100s. In April 1916 they were flying patrols between Armentières and Souchez. Norman was shot down and killed in action on 8 April 1916. He was flying aircraft number 7267 on patrol over German lines.

His obituary in the Liverpool Echo, 10 April 1916 says ‘ Second Lieutenant William Norman Thomas of the Royal Flying Corps, who was killed at the front on Saturday, was a director of W. H. Thomas and Sons Ltd., Contractors, of Oswestry. He joined the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry as a trooper in September 1914 and was promoted sergeant dispatch rider in December of the same year, and was given his commission in Shropshire Light Infantry on June 1st. He took the Flying Certificate at Hendon the following month. Aged twenty-eight, Lieutenant Thomas was educated at Wellington (sic). He was a good cricketer and hockey player, frequently representing Shropshire County eleven.‘

Family grave in Oswestry Cemetery

William is buried in Ecoivres Military Cemetery, Mont-St Eloi near to Arras. He is also commemorated at St Oswald’s Church, Oswestry and Wellingborough School. he is also remembered on the family, and his brother’s, Edward, grave in Oswestry Cemetery.

(IWM All Lives Remembered)

A notice was put in the Personal Column of the Advertiser on 14 April 1916 – ‘Much regret was felt in Oswestry on Monday morning when it was learned that Lieutenant Richard AM Lutener and Flight Lt. William Norman Thomas had been killed in action, the first named on Thursday and the latter on Saturday, the sad intelligence being officially conveyed to the bereaved parents from the War Office early that morning’.

Acknowledgements. 

References

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