Smurthwaite, Thomas Lisle

Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE THOMAS LISLE SMURTHWAITE 29963. Born in September 1895, the fourth of six children to Anthony and Margaret Smurthwaite, Thomas lost both his parents quite young and was raised by his Aunt and Uncle at 59 Russell Street in Middlesbrough. He was a Shop Assistant by trade, but enlisted in the fight for King and Country on 14th July 1915 originally as 22915 in the Yorkshire Regiment before being transferred to the Pals to help fill gaps in the line. On 26th April 1918 the 10th Battalion relieved the 11th Lancashire Regiment in the front line at Seclin. At 3.30 the following morning a raiding party set off under the command of Captain Pearce with the aim of raiding the German trenches around La Becque Farm. The party had crept forward along a ditch and waited for Zero Hour concealed by darkness and awaiting the barrage that would signal their advance. You can picture them squinting into the pitch black trying to recognise a landmark, their quickening breath visible in the chill of an April night. Six of their number would not make it back; Thomas was among them. His body was lost out in No Man’s Land and never recovered, his name commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial. He was 22 years old.