BORN HULL 1895. SON OF THOMAS PARKER & EMMA IVESON. LEFT SWEETHEART CARRIE. ON ST NICHOLAS CHURCH IN WITHERNSEA. ORIGINAL HULL PAL. KIA.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. CORPORAL THOMAS IVESON 11/477. A mystery man tonight I’m afraid. His records say only that he was born in Hull and yet he appears on no Census. I can only work by process of elimination ruling out all ‘Thomas Iveson’s’ who were born in Hull and yet died at other times. Using this method I believe our man is Thomas William Iveson born in 1895, but all other source material reveals nothing more I’m afraid. I know by his regimental number that he enlisted at City Hall early in September 1914 and I know he served with the Pals in Egypt before shipping to France. Beyond that we fast forward to his being killed in action on the Somme on 29th October 1916. To compound the mystery his body was never recovered and Thomas is one of 72,000 men with no known grave whose names are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.
Here is a photo of Corporal T.W. Iveson from the Hull Daily News, dated 25 November 1916. In the accompanying text it records that his parents lived at 25 Kelvin Street and that for the five years before he enlisted he worked for J.M. Hamilton and Co., Sculcoates. In a letter to his parents Lieutenant Sinnett, who was with Thomas when he was shot on patrol between the lines, described him “as a most promising non-commissioned officer, hardworking and popular.†He apparently died just after they carried him back to the trench.
