Name
Alfred Maurice Thomson
8/07/1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/07/1916
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Royal Army Medical Corps
Attd. 7th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Mentioned in Dispatches (MID).
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 4C.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
London Colney Village Memorial, Napsbury Hospital and Staff Memorial London Colney, Ireland World War 1 Casualty list
Pre War
Alfred Maurice THOMSON was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 8th July 1885, son of Alfred Thomson a Linen Yarn Agent and Florence Cordelia Thomson (nee Stephens). The eldest of their four children although one died in infancy. His parents were married at Christ Church, Brussels, Belgium, on 18th June 1884.
Alfred Jr. spent his first seven years in Belgium before returning with his parents and two sister to Belfast, Ireland.
1901 Census records Alfred Jr. aged 15, at school, living with his parents, two sisters, Audrey (9), and Donah (7), at Holyrood Street, Cromac, Co Antrim, Ireland.
Alfred Jr. was educated at the Royal University of Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast, King’s Collage London, and University of Manchester, after his graduation his first surgical position was at the West Kent Hospital in Maidstone, Kent.
1911 Census records Alfred Jr. aged 25, single, and a House Surgeon, at West Kent General Hospital, Marsham Street, Maidstone, Kent.
Pryor to the war Alfred Jr. was Assistant Medical Officer at the Middlesex County Asylum Napsbury, St Albans, Herts.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war Alfred Jr. joined the Special Reserve of the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) in September 1914, he was promoted to Captain a year later. He was attached to the 7th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. On 31st May 1915, he left England with his Battalion, for the Western front, arriving at Boulogne, France, on 1st June 1915.
On 7th July 1916, Alfred and his Battalion were around Ovillers-la-Boisselle, France, when he was Killed in Action while trying to help an injured fellow office, Lieutenant Stocks.
Lieutenant Stocks describes his death: With an entire disregard for the enemy’s heavy shelling and machine gun fire he managed to haul me onto a waterproof sheet, and was pulling me to cover on his improvised sledge when he fell forward almost on top of me, without uttering even a groan, apparently shot through the heart by a sniper”
Lieutenant Stokes had been shot in the right leg about 80 yards from the British Front Line when Alfred Jr. went out to rescue him.
Alfred Jr. was killed the day before his 31st Birthday. He has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, to the missing. Pier and Face 4C.
Additional Information
His effects of £154-04s-08d, went to his Mother Florence Thomson.
Alfred Jr. was mentioned in Dispatches for his actions.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
