Pte. J.T. Thompson

FIRST NAMES: John Thomas

UNIT: 2/5th York and Lancaster Regiment

NUMBER:242787

STATUS: Died of Wounds

DATE OF DEATH: 8th September 1917

CEMETERY OR MEMORIAL: Grevillers British Cemetery

AGE: 20

John Thomas was born in Northallerton and was named after his father at a baptism held on 30th July 1897. His mother was called Bertha, and they lived at 17 Ivy Cottages, Northallerton, though they had previously lived in Oak Tree Yard. He was the elder brother of Pte. Harry Thompson who was killed in 1918, and whose name also appears on the Northallerton Memorial.

John enlisted in Newcastle, though he was living in Bishop Auckland at the time, where he was working as a postman. Before moving to Bishop Auckland he had worked as a telegraph boy in Northallerton.

He went to France in January 1917.

Grevillers was an important medical centre after the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in February 1917. From April 1917 the 3rd, 29th and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations were posted here until the village was recaptured by the Germans in March 1918. John Thomas died of gunshot wounds to the body and legs, which he had received the previous day. He was buried, aged 20, in the cemetery which grew up alongside the Clearing Stations.