Coulson, Thomas

BORN BOSTON, LINCS 1896. SON OF JAMES COULSON AND BERTH EMILY COULSON, OF 141 PLANE STREET, HULL (1911 CENSUS) AND 297 HOLDERNESS ROAD, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). SON OF A FISH MERCHANT. HE WORKED AS A LABOURER. HE HAD TWO BROTHERS WHO ALSO SERVED IN THE WAR. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. HE DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 08/11/1917, AGED 21. HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL, FRANCE AND THE LOCKWOOD STREET SHRINE, HULL.

HIS BROTHER, JOHN JAMES COULSON, ENLISTED IN HULL. SERVED AS PRIVATE, 3616, 1/4TH NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS AND WAS KILLED ON THE SOMME, ON 15/09/1916, AGED 24. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL. HIS THIRD BROTHER, HERBERT WAS WOUNDED (SILVER BADGE NO: 499285). THEIR WAR PENSIONS WENT TO THEIR MOTHER, BERTH EMILY COULSON.

Hull Pals Memorial Post. CORPORAL THOMAS COULSON 11/550. Born in 1896 in Boston, Lincolnshire Thomas was the youngest of three sons to James and Annie Coulson. His mother died when Thomas was a nipper, and the family moved to 141 Plane Street, Beverley Road, Hull where James Coulson remarried. A Butcher before the war, Thomas enlisted on 8th September 1914 for the fledgling 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. He quickly rose through the ranks making Lance Corporal on 1st April 1915, and Corporal on 8th June 1916 after the Pals arrived in France and Sergeant after Oppy Wood. Perhaps his experiences on the Somme and at Oppy Wood, coupled with the responsibility of rank, were too much for him because he was charged with drunkenness on 29th August 1917 and reduced in rank back to Corporal as a result. He had been wounded in the right thigh at Oppy and evacuated to the hospital centre at Etaples. Maybe he felt survivors’ guilt at having led his men over the top and watched them mowed down yet escaped himself. His time was soon to come. Thomas Coulson was killed in action during the trench raid on Fresnoy on 8th November 1917 and his body never recovered, his name joined those of his comrades at Oppy on the Arras Memorial; he was 21 years old.

The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull.  All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.
The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
First name:
THOMAS
Regiment:
11th East Yorkshire Regiment (Hull Tradesmen)
Military Number:
11/550
Rank:
Corporal
Date Died
08/11/1917
Place died:
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France
Age:
21
297 HOLDERNESS ROAD, HULL, EAST YORKSHIRE, UK
Place Buried
62000 Arras, France