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Regiment: Somerset Yeomanry.
Died: 01 September 1918 aged 28 in France. Killed in action.
Battle: Hundred Days Allied Offensive. Cemetery: Templeux Le Guerard Brit Cemetery I B 41
Son of E. B. Thomson, M.D., Norbiton House, Plymouth, b. 1890.
Lower IV—Matriculation Class.
Studied Medicine and Engineering.
Farmer in Queensland.
Great War, Private Inns of Court O.T.C.; Lieutenant Somerset Yeomanry.
'After leaving Malvern he wished to go abroad at once, but, in deference to his parents' wishes (who wished to keep him in England) he studied for a time for the medical profession, and afterwards for a year at University College, with a view to electrical engineering. The work not being congenial to him, he eventually joined a friend farming on Darling Downs in Queensland. When war was declared he paid his own passage home to join an English unit. He first tried to join a Cavalry Regt., but finally joined the Inns of Court O.T.C., in January 1915, and got his commission with the West Somerset Yeomanry in April of the same year. He was with them in Gallipoli as Signalling Officer till the evacuation. After a bout of jaundice and fever, at Malta, he was stationed in Egypt where he was employed as Signalling Instructor. There, in October 1916, he developed appendicitis and was operated on in Cairo. In February 1917 he re-joined his regiment, which moved up with the Palestine advance, and was there till the 7th Division was moved to France. He was promoted Captain in September 1917, and went back to France, where he was killed. His parents have received letters from his General (Maj.-Gen. Birdwood) and his Commanding Officer, in which they bear testimony to his great ability, courage, and inspiring leading. "There was no finer example of pluck and devotion to duty than those displayed by your son. He was admired and beloved by all who knew him," writes the General. He was recommended for gallantry in action.' (Malvernian, Feb 1919).