Hull Pals Memorial Post. CORPORAL, THOMAS ABBOTT WILDE, MM, 25089. Born in the summer of 1880, Thomas was the fourth of six children to William Henry Wilde (1850-1906) and Elizabeth Abbott (1852-1926), of 29 Hopwood Street, Hull (CWGC address). He had four sisters and one brother. His entry into the world was already tinged with tragedy. He was the second Thomas Abbott Wilde to have been born to his parents, his elder brother having not made his first birthday and having passed away just months before Thomas’s birth. William Henry Wilde died in 1905 and responsibility for his mother and sisters fell on young Thomas’s shoulders.
When war came he dutifully enlisted at Hull City Hall he joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and proved himself a capable and brave soldier making the rank of Corporal and being awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery en route. Thomas was seriously wounded during the Spring Offensive as the Pals attempted to hold the Hamelincourt/Bucquoy Line against the massed ranks of newly reinforced German soldiers. He was withdrawn to the hospital camps at Etaples, but died on 30th March 1918. Elizabeth Wilde lost her second Thomas Abbott Wilde, her only son.
