8669 Pte. T. C. Cawthorne, 1st East Yorkshire Regiment.
Thomas Charles Cawthorne was born on 31st May 1889, the son of Thomas Cawthorne, a dealer of cat's meat, and his wife Sarah. The couple already had a son, George, and a daughter, Sarah, and resided at 35 Cranbrook Street, Bethnal Green. The street is pictured below.
On 14th June 1907, Thomas enlisted in the Militia as a volunteer in the 5th Royal Fusiliers. His Attestation Papers describe him as 18 years old, 5' 11" tall, 148lbs, and with a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. His trade is given as carman. It seems that he quickly decided that the military life would suit him as on 9th October 1907, Thomas enlisted as a regular soldier in the East Yorkshire Regiment. Unfortunately, Thomas Cawthorne's Service Papers for his time in the East Yorks have not survived. However, the few details that are known are particularly interesting.
On the outbreak of war, Thomas was serving with the 1st East Yorkshire Regiment and went to France with the Battalion on 8th September 1914. The Battalion fought on the Western Front for the whole war, taking part in the Battles of the Aisne, Armentieres, the Somme, Arras, and Third Ypres. On 21st March 1918, the Battalion was at Saulcourt and came under heavy shelling during the opening phase of the Kaiser's Battle and it was here that Thomas Cawthorne's bravery earned him the Distinguished Conduct Medal. A total of 134 DCMs were won by the East Yorkshire Regiment in the First World War. The citation reads:
"On 21st March, near Saulcourt, for cool courage and devotion to duty. While the camp was being heavily shelled and later on in the day for eleven hours, he assisted, under heavy shell fire, in evacuating the wounded. On 24th March 1918, and again on 28th March, it was largely due to his fine example and energy that many vehicles and horses among the transport were saved under heavy fire."
On 14th June 1918, the 1st East Yorks with a strength of 7 officers and 194 other ranks was travelling by train to the Abbeville area. Around 9.30pm, they passed through the station of Coulommiers, which was the first detraining station of the Battalion on its arrival on active service in France. This fact was of great interest to those who had been with the Battalion in September 1914. The Regimental History notes that only one officer and ten men of the original contingent were still with the Battalion, one of whom was Private Thomas Cawthorne.
Little is known of Thomas' life after the war and after his discharge from the army. In 1925, he married Lily Pattison, a local Bethnal Green girl. The death of a Thomas Charles Cawthorne of 10 Maplin Street, Mile End, London is recorded on 4th May 1975. This could possibly be the same man. He would have been 85 years old and Maplin Street is less than one mile from Cranbrook Street, where Thomas grew up.
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