SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY

"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
R/20547 Rifleman THOMAS ROBINSON GLOVER

8th Battalion., King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Killed in action on the 15th of September 1916.

Born at Westerdale, N Yorks. Enlisted at Saltburn by Sea, N Yorks.

Home at 103 High St, Skelton in Cleveland, N Yorkshire.


The Thiepval Memorial.

FAMILY:-
1911 census - Thomas is aged 16 and living at home, 68 High Street, Moorsholm, N Yorks. No occupation given. He was born in Westerdale, N Yorks.
His father, Thomas, aged 58, is Widow and works as a Platelayer in the Ironstone Mines. He was born in Loftus, N Yorks.
They have a 26 year old Housekeeper, Cecilia Bell from Rosedale, Yorks.
Thomas has a sister Mary Ann, aged 13, also born in Westerdale and a young brother, Wilfred Wilson Bell, aged 3, born in Danby, N Yorks.

WAR SITUATION:-
The 8th (Service) Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps were formed at Winchester on 21 August 1914.
August 1914 - attached to 41st Brigade, 14th (Light) Division.
Thomas' Medal Card shows that he was not awarded the 1914/15 Star.
He must have joined the Battalion in France in 1916, but exact date is not known.
On the 15th September the 14th Division fought in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, a further phase in the Battle of the Somme which continued from June of 1916 into the winter.
The massive bombardment at the end of June 1916 and the July advance continued with a series of offensives.
The advance stalled for some weeks at the line shown on the map for 15th September.
Thomas Glover lost his life in the next offensive, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, which commenced on the 14th September and lasted until it was called off on the 22nd of that month.
The Battle was notable for the introduction of tanks, 49 in all, by the British.
Only 15 made it to No Mans Land, but they were considered to have had a devastating effect on German morale.
The British forces made initial gains of some 2 kilometres within the first three days, something of an achievement at the time, and particularly during the Battle of the Somme.
Led by tanks the villages of Martinpuich, Flers and Courcelette fell to the Allies, as did the much sought-after High Wood.
MEMORIAL:-
The Thiepval Memorial commemorates more than 72,000 missing men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died on the Somme battlefields before 20th March 1918 and who have no known grave.

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