The Military Service of Pte Thomas Fearon

Thomas turned 18 during the final year of the First World War and he quickly enlisted into the army. He was given service number 29457 and sent to France with D Company, 8^th (Service) Battalion, King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment).

It’s not yet known when Thomas joined the Battalion – which in 1918 was a part of the 3^rd Division. They helped to slow the German Spring Offensive at the Battle of St. Quentin in March and the Battle of Lys in April. When the tables turned over the summer, the Battalion played a role in the Hundred Days Offensive that pushed the Germans beyond the Hindenburg Line and resulted in the end of the war.

On the first day of October 1918, the Battalion launched an attack on Rumilly-en-Cambrésis to the southwest of Cambrai, achieving most of their objectives before being withdrawn. They were held in reserve for the next few weeks until ordered to attack Romeries on 23 October. The men moved into their assembly positions at 5am, although the attack did not begin until just after noon. They achieved all their objectives with ‘light’ casualties of 17 killed and 103 wounded. Sadly, Thomas was one of those killed – just 19 days before the end of the conflict. Indeed, this was the Battalion’s last action of the war.

He is commemorated on the memorial at the Vis-en-Artois Cemetery, on the road from Arras to Cambrai. This Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave.