THOMAS FREDERICK GREENLAND
The village of Box on the A4, north-east of Bath, was the birthplace of Thomas's father George Greenland. He was born there in 1860 but left to join the Royal Navy in the 1870s. The 1881 census recorded him, an Able Seaman, aboard HMS Mosquito but he is missing from the 1891 census. In the meantime however he had spent some time at Portsmouth as he had met and married locally born Sarah Grocer in 1883.
By 1901 George and Sarah were living at 11 Gladstone Street, Buckland and though George was away for the census that year it did list Sarah with their three boys, James, Thomas and William born in 1885, 1890 and 1899 respectively. George had left the navy by 1911 when he was described in the census as being a skilled labourer in the Electrical Engineering department at HM Dockyard. That census also noted that the family were at 37 Raglan Street and that Thomas Frederick had left home.
Thomas Frederick enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment at Winchester, probably around 1910. The census for 1911 showed he was then at Winchester barracks. At the outbreak of the Great War the Battalion was at Colchester and Thomas Frederick had been promoted to Sergeant. They left for France on 23rd August 1914 and were pitched into battle straight away; Thomas Frederick was killed in action just three days later.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) lists Thomas Frederick Greenland, Sergeant (7820), 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died 26/08/1914, aged 24 years. Commemorated on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial. Son of Mr. and Mrs. Greenland, of 30, St. Vincent St., Southsea, Portsmouth.
Thomas Greenland is also commemorated on the Cenotaph, Guildhall Square. He is not listed in "The National Roll of the Great War", Section X.
Tim Backhouse
February 2015