East Riding Yeomanry
Date of death: 14/11/1917 (aged 21)
BORN HULL 1/11/1896. SECOND SON OF TOM CAWKILL (1864-1949) & MARY LOUISA ASHTON (1868- 1929), LIVING AT 190 HOLDERNESS ROAD. HE WAS EDUCATED AT CRAVEN STREET SECONDARY SCHOOL. IN 1911 HE WAS BASED IN BURTON PIDSEA, PATRINGTON, WORKING AS A BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT.
HE ENLISTED IN THE EAST RIDING YEOMANRY, NOVEMBER 1914. SERVED WITH THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN 1915 AND IN PALESTINE FROM APRIL 1917. HE WAS 21 YEARS OLD AND HAD BEEN IN THE ARMY FOR THREE YEARS, WHEN HE WAS KILLED IN ACTION ON 14/11/1917. EARLIER IN THE WAR HE HAD NARROWLY ESCAPED DROWNING AFTER BEING SHIP WRECKED. HE LEFT SISTERS ‘NELLIE’, MAGGIE AND BROTHER TOM.
HE IS FEATURED IN THE HDM – 06/12/1917, 15/12/1917, 14/11/1918 & 14/11/1919. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON THE 15TH DECEMBER 1917, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. * HE IS BURIED AT NAAN, EGYPT AND HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE RETURNED TO HIS FATHER, TOM.
STANLEY’S OFFICER WROTE “YOUR SON WAS KILLED WHILST GOING UP A RIDGE TO SAVE HIS CORPORAL, WHO WAS WOUNDED. IT WAS ONE OF THOSE MAGNIFICENT DEEDS OF SELF SACRIFICE THAT MAKES ONE SO PROUD OF THE NAME OF AN ENGLISHMAN. HE WAS ALWAYS AN EXTRAORDINARY CAPABLE AND WILLING SOLDIER, AND NEVER QUIBBLED AT AN ORDER – ONE OF THE MEN WHO COULD BE LEAST SPARED IN THE SQUADRON.” TOM WAS 21 YEARS OLD AND UNMARRIED. HIS ARMY EFFECTS AND WAR GRATUITY WERE LEFT TO HIS FATHER, TOM.
