Thomas William Trow was born at Oswestry in 1881. He was the eldest child of William and Mary Trow; they would have 9 children of whom 7 would survive into adulthood. His father was a tailor. In 1891 they were living at Osborne House, Bailey Street, by 1901 they were living at 70 Salop Road and then at 11 Stewart Road. Thomas, like his father, became a tailor serving his apprenticeship with his father and then going to work in Chester. By 1911 he had returned to Oswestry and was living in the family home on Stewart Road and working with his father. In 1913 he married Emily Rogers and together they set up house at 96 Willow Street. Thomas was an amateur musician and played in the Borough and the Offa’s Dyke bands.

Around this time Thomas joined the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry Special Reserve. He was mobilised on 4 August 1914. He was likely posted to 3 Bn KSLI and then to 2 Bn KSLI, joining at Winchester after it had returned from India and prior to going over to France. He went over to France on 5 February 1915 as a draft (see also Second Lieutenant Gilbert R Venables and Private 6699 RH Cooper ) reporting to the battalion on 15 February.

Thomas was KIA on 27 April at Bellewaerde Wood during the Battle of St Julien 24 April – 4 May 1915, Second Ypres. His body was lost and he has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate. He is also remembered on the war memorials at St Oswald’s and Holy Trinity Churches, Oswestry. Thomas’s brother, Arthur, also served, in the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, and survived the war. Thomas’s obituary records that he was the third man from Stewart Road to fall – one of whom was Private 6679 L Roberts, 2 Bn RWF. KIA 9 September 1914.

Acknowledgements.

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