Thomas was born on the 27th December 1884 at 7 Miles Street, Greenwich. His parents were Patrick, a Labourer, born in Southwark about 1852 and Catherine (nee Penny) born in Greenwich about 1850. They were married in 1880 in Greenwich. Thomas had two brothers and one sister, William (1880), John (1881) and Caroline (1887).
1881 – The census shows us that Patrick and Catherine are living at 54, George Street South, Greenwich. It also tells us that their son William aged 1 was physically handicapped as he only had one leg.
1891 – Catherine (recorded in the census as being Caroline) is an inmate at the Greenwich Union Workhouse. Living there with her, are her sons John aged 10, Thomas aged 6 and Caroline aged 4. Her eldest son William is found to be boarding at the South Metropolitan District School in Sutton, Surrey. This school was established in 1852 to educate and house poor children from Greenwich, Camberwell and Woolwich. Patrick is not recorded as living with them and there is no trace of him.
1895 – Thomas and his sister Caroline (now known as Kate) are both admitted into Frankham Street School, in the Borough of Lewisham, (later to become Tidemill Primary School) on the 22nd April. Their address is 73 Griffin Street, Deptford and it states on the records that Thomas’s previous school was in Old Woolwich Road, Greenwich.
1901 – The family are living at 17 Francis Street, Woolwich. Both Patrick and Thomas are shown as being General Labourers.
On the 4th May 1903, Thomas enlists into The Buffs at Woolwich. All his army records are in the name of Davey. He was sent to the barracks at Canterbury on the 6th May to start his new career. His age at the time was 18 and on his service records it states that he was 5ft 6ins, had blue eyes, brown hair and tattoos on both arms.
At the very beginning of his career he was put on a charge and confined to barracks for 8 days for being drunk when returning to the barracks after 10pm. From then on he is recorded as being of good or very good conduct.
In May 1905 he was at Bulford Camp, and then on the 2nd June his battalion embarked for South Africa and was there until 26th October 1908. On the 27th October they were posted to Hong Kong where they spent the next two years until the 4th December 1910. During his time in Hong Kong Thomas was given the rank of ‘Drummer’ on the 10th May 1909.
From Hong Kong the Battalion moved to Singapore and was stationed there from 5th December 1910 until 31st January 1913. On the 15th January 1913 he was promoted to Lance Corporal.
On the 1st February 1913 he was shipped to Wellington Barracks, Madras, India and was there until 15th November 1914. On the 16th they embarked for England from Bombay landing at Plymouth.
Whilst the battalion was stationed in England, Thomas was promoted to a full Corporal on 25th December 1914. In the meantime the battalion were assigned to the 85th Brigade/28th Division of The British Expeditionary Force.
On the 17th January 1915 the 28th Division was mobilised for war and were landed at Havre.
Thomas applied for, and received, a furlough from 9th April until 23rd April 1915, whilst on leave he is recorded as being at 6 Albert Place, Bellegrove, Welling. On his return to The Front he finds that the 28th Division is already embroiled in The Second Battle of Ypres and are heading for Bellewaarde Ridge where it is believed that Thomas lost his life. He was listed as missing on the 28th May and was officially declared presumed dead in March 1918. The Army were unable to trace his next of kin. In January 1919 his mother signed an official declaration of his death with an ‘X’. He is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (panel 12 & 14).
Postscript
Thomas’ family was beset by tragedy. At the time of the 1911 Census, his father, Patrick, was an inmate at The Workhouse, High Street, Plumstead. His mother, Catherine (now known as Kate), was living with Thomas’ sister, Caroline (also now known as Kate), her husband William Steggall and their 6 children at 4, Williams Place, Belle Grove, Welling. Sadly Caroline (Kate) died in on 1st November 1918 of Spanish Flu.
Thomas’ older brother, John (born in Greenwich in 1881) had married Elizabeth Byrne in 1901 in Dublin. By 1911 he was working as a Dock Labourer and they were living with their three young children (Thomas aged 9, Mary aged 4 and John aged 3) at 20, Kirkland Place, Greenwich. John joined the Army at some stage during the first year of the war, enlisting at Woolwich and drafted into the Rifle Brigade of The Princes Consort Own/7th Battalion as a Rifleman, Service No: S/13437. He first saw action in October 1915 and was sadly killed on the 18th August 1916. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
Thomas’ mother, Kate, lost three of her children in the war years and also her husband, Patrick, who died in 1916. No record could be found of Kate’s remaining first child, William, after 1901, and we can only assume that he died too.
In 1919, Thomas’s mother was living at 42, Eastry St, Greenwich, this information being given on a letter included with his service records. It is believed, but not verified, that she died in December 1937.
A local newspaper article in November 1996 quotes Kit Goodwin (whom we believe was Kathleen, daughter of Kate and William Steggall) and who was living in Upton Road, Bexleyheath, as recalling her uncle Thomas as “a brave lad of 19 (sic 29). We had a pair of pictures, one of him and his fiancée, in our living room in Bellegrove Road. The couple were engaged but he was killed and the life they were planning never happened. I was only a child but remember him well”.
Battles of Thomas’ Regiment:
THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES This was fought from 21st April – 25th May 1915 for control of the strategic Flemish town of Ypres. This followed the First Battle of Ypres the previous autumn. It marked the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front. Battles in this area included, St Juliaan, Kitchener’s Wood and Bellewaarde Ridge.
BELLEWAARDE RIDGE Following the gas attacks and subsequent fighting on the French and Canadian fronts at the end of April 1915, the newly appointed commander of the British 2nd Army, General Plumer ordered a withdrawal on the right hand sector of the Ypres salient over the night of 3/4th May. This movement positioned the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry on the Bellewaarde ridge 500 metres north-east of Hooge. The 28th Division (which included The Buffs/2nd Battalion) were on their left arcing round the Frezenberg Ridge to the north of Wieltje and on to Mouse trap Farm (near Buffs Road Cemetery). At the beginning of May the salient was in serious danger of being pinched out if the Germans made a determined effort to encircle the beleaguered allied position.
The big push came on May 8th when three German Corps assaulted the areas of Mouse Trap Farm, Frezenberg and Bellewaarde. Outnumbering the defenders by three to one the Germans third assault on the Frezenberg Ridge proved decisive and a hole was punched into the 28th Divisions line. Having reached Verlorenhoek they halted their advance and began widening the breach to the north and south moving along the British trenches. The Canadians were also in trouble as casualties were so extreme that cooks and batmen had to man the line. Aid was not long in coming and a gallant stand by the 2nd Bn Northumberland Fusiliers near Mouse Trap Farm stopped any further encroachment into the northern sector of the line and the line was held.
The 2nd Battle of Ypres was all but over, at 2.45am on 24th May (Whit Monday), a ferocious German artillery bombardment slammed down on the British front. The clamour of shells, machine-guns and rifle fire was accompanied by a simultaneous discharge of chlorine gas on almost the entire length of the British line. Although the favourable wind alerted the British trench garrison to the likelihood of a gas attack the proximity of the opposing trenches and speed of the enemy assault meant many defenders failed to don their respirators quickly enough and large numbers were overcome. The British defence rallied and the attackers were repelled by small arms fire. Help arrived in the early evening by the arrival of a weakened 84th Brigade followed by the belated arrival of the 80th Brigade. A joint night counter-attack was made after 11pm, this assault in bright moonlight was a disaster and there were heavy casualties. In the early hours of the morning of the 25th the battle quietened. The following day saw a reduction in shelling and no attempts by the Germans to renew the offensive. The 2nd Battle of Ypres was officially closed with British casualties recorded in the British Official History as being 59,275.
THE BUFFS
The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot was an infantry of the British Army until 1961. It had a history dating back to 1572 and was one of the oldest regiments of the British Army being third in order of precedence (ranked as the 3rd Regiment of the line). It provided distinguished service over a period of almost 400 years, accumulating 116 battle honours. During WW1 the Regiment raised 14 Battalions and was awarded 48 battle honours and 1 Victoria Cross, losing 6,000 men during the course of the war. Following a series of amalgamations since 1961 its linage is today continued by the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment.
The 3rd Regiment’s name of ‘The Buffs’ is said to have originated in its use of protective buff coats – made of leather – during service in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Later they adopted buff-coloured facings and waistcoats as uniform distinctions and wore equipment of natural buff leather rather than pipe-clayed the customary white.
In 1909 Thomas was given the rank of ‘Drummer’. This originated when The Buffs was one of five regiments given the Freedom of the City of London. This gave them the right to march through the City with drums beating, bayonets fixed and colours flying. This was due to a Royal Warrant written in 1672 allowing them to raise volunteers “by beat of the drum” in the City of London.
Commemorated
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This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Thomas Dacey, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.