Thomas Henry Williams – Welsh Regiment & Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch)

Private Thomas Henry Williams – Welsh Regiment & Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch)

Thomas Williams and Martha Jane Wilkins marriage certificate All Saints Church, Llanelli

Thomas Henry Williams, born in 1890 in the United States of America, was the son of Thomas Williams and Martha Jane Wilkins, who married in 1885 at All Saints Church, Llanelli. His early life can be followed through the surviving census records, which show the family settling into Swansea’s working communities.

Census Background 

1901 Census

In 1901, the Williams family were living at 48 Calbourn Terrace, Swansea, where Thomas, aged 44 and born in Carmarthenshire, worked as a draper’s assistant. His wife Martha, also 44, managed the home, and their children—Walter (15), a tinplate worker; Maudeline (14); Thomas (11) and Olyn Harriet (6)—were all present in the household.

1911 Census

By 1911, Thomas had died, leaving Martha, now 54, widowed and living at 25 Matthew Street, Swansea. Two of her children remained at home: Thomas Henry (20), employed as a butcher’s assistant, and Olga (16), who worked in a fruit business. The census captures a family adjusting to loss while continuing to work within Swansea’s busy commercial trades.

 Marriage

In 1914, Thomas married Esther Eleanor Griffiths in Swansea, beginning married life on the eve of the First World War.

Military Service – Welsh Regiment & Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch)

Thomas first enlisted as a Private in the 21st Battalion, Welsh Regiment. He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch), Depot Battalion — a unit of enormous historical importance.

The Depot Battalion – Training & Organisation 

The Depot Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch) served as the organisational and training centre for Britain’s earliest tank crews, and it was into this formation that Thomas Henry Williams was transferred. The battalion was responsible for receiving new recruits, instructing them in machine‑gun theory and the operation of the Army’s first tanks, and teaching the mechanical maintenance and armoured tactics required for this new form of warfare. It also organised trained men into newly formed Heavy Branch companies ready for deployment to the Western Front. Training was carried out at Belton Park, Grantham, with a second depot established at Camiers, France, and it was here that men like Thomas became part of the pioneering generation who laid the foundations of modern armoured warfare within what would soon evolve into the Tank Corps.

Thomas Henry Williams
St. Peter's Church, Cockett
credit - findagrave

Transition to the Tank Corps

In July 1917, shortly after Thomas’s death, the Heavy Branch became the Tank Corps, later the Royal Tank Regiment. His service therefore sits at the very beginning of Britain’s mechanised military history.

Death and Burial

Thomas Henry Williams died in Dorset on 18 May 1917. His body was brought home to Swansea, where he was laid to rest at St Peter’s, joining the parish’s early First World War burials.