Thomas Bartholomew Beer - Private - Welsh Regiment – 6th (Glamorgan) Battalion, Territorial Force
Thomas Bartholomew Beer was born in Swansea in 1890, the son of John Robert D. Beer and Phoebe Ann Johns, who had married in Swansea in 1889.
 |
| 1891 Census |
At the time of the 1891 Census, the Beer family were living at 131 New Oxford Road, Swansea. Thomas’s father, John, aged 30, was employed as a ship’s carpenter and fisherman. He had been born in Bude, Cornwall, while his wife, Phoebe, aged 25, was originally from Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.
Their only child at the time was Thomas Bartholomew, who was just one year old.
Tragedy struck the family in 1901 when Thomas’s father, John, died shortly before the census was taken. Thomas would have been approximately 11 years old when he lost his father, leaving his mother to care for her three young sons.
 |
| 1901 Census |
At the time of the 1901 Census, the family were living at Beaufort House, Swansea. Phoebe, now aged 36, was employed as a laundress, an occupation that involved long hours of physically demanding work.
Her three children were Thomas Bartholomew, known to his family as Bertie, aged 11, Charlie, six, and George, who was just one year old.
Following the death of her husband, Phoebe would have faced the considerable responsibility of supporting her young family. Her employment as a laundress provided a means of earning a living at a time when opportunities for widowed mothers were often limited.
 |
| 1911 Census |
By the time of the 1911 Census, Thomas had left the family home and was employed as a farm servant at Maesyglynon, Morriston, near Swansea.
The property was occupied by David Thomas, aged 84, a retired farmer, and his wife, Anne Elizabeth, aged 63. Also living at the farm were their two sons, Isaac David, aged 27, who was employed as a farmer, and Thomas Walker, aged 22, who was recorded as a classical student.
Four servants were employed at the property. Ann Hopkins, aged 32, worked as a general domestic servant, while Thomas Bartholomew Beer, now aged 21, was employed as a waggoner on the farm.
His duties would have involved handling horses and transporting agricultural produce, equipment and other materials, work that required considerable physical strength and experience in managing animals.
Also employed at the farm was Clifford George Bevan, aged 15, who worked as a cowman, together with Thomas’s younger brother, Charlie Beer, aged 14, who was employed as a farm labourer.
The presence of both Thomas and Charlie at Maesyglynon suggests that the brothers had found employment together in the agricultural community around Morriston.
Having grown up in Swansea before entering farm work, Thomas would have experienced both the busy industrial life of the town and the more rural surroundings of the Swansea Valley.
Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Thomas entered military service, joining the Welsh Regiment.
He served as a Private with the 6th (Glamorgan) Battalion, Territorial Force, a battalion with strong connections to Swansea and the surrounding districts.
The 6th Battalion was a Territorial Force unit whose members had originally been trained for home defence. During the First World War, however, Territorial soldiers were increasingly deployed overseas to reinforce British forces serving on the Western Front.
The battalion served in France and Belgium, where its men undertook demanding duties in the trenches and were exposed to the dangers of artillery bombardments, sniper fire and other hazards of front-line service.
By November 1917, British and Commonwealth forces were engaged in the final stages of the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly known as the Passchendaele campaign.
The offensive had begun on 31st July 1917 and had developed into one of the most difficult campaigns of the First World War. Heavy rainfall, continuous artillery bombardments and the destruction of drainage systems had transformed much of the battlefield into a landscape of deep mud, flooded shell holes and shattered trenches.
Although the village of Passchendaele had been captured by Canadian forces on 6th November 1917, fighting and artillery exchanges continued throughout the Ypres Salient as both sides attempted to strengthen and defend their positions.
It was during this period of continued fighting that Thomas lost his life.
 |
| Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects |
Although the precise circumstances of his death remain unknown, his date of death places him among the casualties of the continuing fighting in Flanders during the final months of 1917.
 |
| Thomas Bartholomew Beer White House Cemetery, West-Vlaandener, Belgium credit - findagrave |
The cemetery takes its name from a nearby building known as the White House and contains the graves of British and Commonwealth servicemen who died during the fighting in the Ypres Salient.
For his widowed mother, Phoebe, and his younger brothers, Charlie and George, back in Swansea, Thomas’s death brought the devastating loss of a son and brother who had left his home to serve his country.
Having lost her husband, John, in 1901, Phoebe now faced the tragedy of losing her eldest son during the war.
Thomas had spent his early years in Swansea before working alongside his younger brother Charlie at Maesyglynon Farm, Morriston. His death meant that he would never return to the family and community he had known.
Comments
Post a Comment