Name: Thomas Gannon
Rank: Lance Corporal
Unit/Regiment: 2nd Battalion, The King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry)
Service Number: 3/2034
Date of Death: 18 April 1915
Memorial: Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial
Although Thomas Gannon is not commemorated on the St Mary’s War Memorial, he was amongst the parishioners submitted by Fr Lea to Batley Borough for inclusion on the town War Memorial.
Thomas Gannon was born in Batley on 16 January 1869. His parents Patrick Gannon and Bridget Cairns,1 though both from County Mayo, married locally in 1865. Their eldest son, Michael, was born in Batley later that year, followed by Catherine (1867), then Thomas, James (1870), John (1872), Charles (1874), Joseph Patrick (1876) and John William (1879). Two of these children died in infancy – Catherine in April 1870, and John in June 1874. Both were interred in Batley cemetery.
The Gannon family were well thought of. When Thomas’ brother James was charged with a stealing offence in 1887, the defending solicitor said the Gannon family “had occupied a position of respectability in Batley for twenty years.” Character references came in for James from several people, including St Mary’s parish priest Fr Gordon.2
The family lived in New Street, occupying a house and grocer’s shop which Patrick ran. There is an early reference to him in this business capacity in a West Riding Petty Session case on 8 April 1870 when several local shopkeepers, including Patrick, were fined for having inaccurate weights and scales.3 This was not to be the only time Patrick fell foul of the inspector of weights and measures. It was a common offence amongst traders.
Respectability did not necessarily mean the family escaped untoward publicity. In one newspaper headline-making incident, spotlight fell on a row between Patrick and another New Street tradesman, butcher Joseph Thornton.
Late in the evening of 3 August 1873 Joseph Thornton went out with two of his young sons looking for their missing hen. They pushed open what Joseph claimed to be a loose stable door, where he found his hen. As the Thorntons grabbed it, it began clucking.
The stable belonged to Patrick. He used it as his warehouse, and also for keeping his pigs and poultry. The commotion disturbed Patrick and Bridget Gannon, who were eating supper at home with Ann Philips. The trio went out to investigate, Patrick in such a hurry that he left without coat, waistcoat or boots. They challenged Joseph as to why he was on their premises, accusing him of breaking off and stealing the padlock. He swore in response and challenged Patrick to a fight. In the melee which followed Joseph was accused of seizing Patrick by the throat, knocking him down and throwing Bridget against a wall. In counter-allegations Patrick was accused of striking Joseph on the eye and nose, whilst Bridget scratched him, tore his shirt and struck him on the head with a brick. The magistrates found Joseph guilty of assault and damages. The case against the Gannons was dismissed.4
Patrick was the victim of another assault in October 1876. On this occasion the dispute centred around the use of the Gannon’s privy by John Hannan. It resulted in police involvement and a New Street riot lasting for two or three hours. More details of that incident can be found here.
By September 1879 Patrick had been running the shop for 12 years, paying annual rent of £16 3s. 4d.5 The property met the threshold for a license to sell beer. As a result Patrick applied for this at that year’s Batley Brewster Sessions. Initially the application was rejected, but after an appeal and valuation of the property by Batley architect Walter Hanstock, Patrick won his licence.
Perhaps financial difficulties were the impetus behind the diversification. For in February 1880 Patrick was said to have liabilities amounting to £400.6 But he continued in business, and the 1881 census shows grocer and provision dealer Patrick still trading in New Street. Assisting him in the family enterprise were wife Bridget and two eldest sons, Michael and Thomas.7
There is also a suspicion that the Patrick’s beer license was granted only grudgingly by the magistrates. For in the September 1883 Brewster Sessions Patrick’s application to renew his licence was refused, on the basis of the proximity of the Ringer’s Arms and the White Hart public houses.
This plunged the family once more into financial difficulties. In May 1884 Patrick appeared in Dewsbury County Court to file for administration. Patrick put the blame for his predicament firmly on the decision by the magistrates to remove his beer-selling licence, with his liabilities all linked to the beer industry.8 When his debts were totalled the following month they amounted to £44 19s 1d.9
Patrick died on 15 April 1885. But the family did continue in business. Patrick was described as a fruiterer in the death notices, and a grocer in the Batley cemetery burial register. The family retained their stable even after Patrick’s death. And in 1887 Michael, described as a licensed hawker, along with brothers Thomas and James, were found guilty of obstructing Commercial Street and given nominal fines. The implication is rather than the shop trading, they had possibly down-sized and now sold green groceries from a handcart.10 It would entail fewer overheads, but would offer even less financial and job security.
The 1891 census records Michael and brother James living in Villiers Street, working as a greengrocer and greengrocer’s assistant. Their mother, Bridget, who married John Collee11 on 28 July 1889, is recorded at East Street with youngest sons Charles, Joseph and John.
Thomas though was no longer in Batley. It appears he enlisted with the Lancashire Fusiliers in January 1889, after spending some time with the 3rd King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI).12 His occupation prior to enlistment was as a labourer. His records on enlistment describe him as 5 feet 4 inches, with a dark complexion, brown eyes, and dark brown hair. He had a scar on his right upper arm and at the centre of his spine.
He served in the army from January 1889 through to January 1902, as both a private and lance corporal. This included time in India from 1890 to 1896, where he qualified as an assistant instructor in army signalling. Latterly, from December 1899 to December 1901, he served with the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers in the South Africa 2nd Boer War campaign. It was during this campaign, in February 1900, that his mother died.
Thomas rejoined the Colours towards the end of August 1914, enlisting with the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion of the KOYLI, under service number 3/2034. He went out to France on 19 January 1915, to serve with the 2nd KOYLI. They were part of the 13th Brigade in the 5th Division. It is probable he was with the draft of one officer and 98 men who joined the 2nd Battalion at Bailleul on 28 January 1915.13 In the coming months they served in and around Belgium and the France/Belgium border area.
Then, between the 17 and 21 April 1915 the 5th Division – including the 2nd KOYLI – were involved in action at Hill 60, south east of Ypres.
Hill 60 was an important strategic position, named after the contour line marking it on maps. A small, steeply-escarped mound of around 50 feet created from spoil from the building of the Ypres-Comines railway, it had been held by the Germans since late 1914. Surrounded by flat country, it gave them an excellent view of British positions and its approaches going some miles back to Ypres.
On 17 April the 2nd KOYLI moved from billets in Reninghelst to Ypres in preparation for the attack. They were to be in reserve. At 7pm that evening a series of British mines were detonated under Hill 60, accompanied by heavy bombardment, and the assault commenced involving the 2nd King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) and the 1st Royal West Kents (RWK).
The Hill was stormed and captured, with the British occupiers then subjected to German counter-attacks, in the severe fighting which ensued throughout the night. At dawn on the 18th one of these counter attacks succeeded and the KOSBs were forced off the summit. At 3pm orders came that the hill must be retaken at all costs, with the assault falling to the 2nd Duke of Wellingtons and 2nd KOYLI, the latter having been brought up from Ypres earlier that morning.
This push commenced at 6pm on 18th April, and by 6.55pm the British once more held the hill in strength. By 11.30pm their position on the hill was satisfactory, they were now firmly established, but the losses had been heavy and those that remained were exhausted. Throughout the night the Germans:
…counter attacked continuously using hand Grenades & Bombs & furious combats took place in the craters made by the explosions of the mines which soon became a shambles & filled with killed & wounded…The German High Explosive Shells gave off blinding & suffocating fumes which caused great distress amongst the men but they hung on. Rifles got jammed from the heat of firing & Grenades & ammunition were difficult to get up owing to the block of wounded in the communicating & fire trenches & if it had not been for the stacks of German Rifles & amm[unitio]n left behind which our men used instead of their own it would have been difficult to maintain our position on the Hill which however we did until relieved at Dawn on 19th April…14
The 2nd KOYLI suffered heavy casualties amongst officers and men. The Unit War Diary records the deaths of seven officers. A further two died of wounds, with six more wounded. Of the other ranks 25 were killed, 190 wounded and 10 categorised as missing.15
Amongst those lost was Lance Corporal Thomas Gannon, who was officially accepted as killed in action on 18 April 1915. He has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres.
Thomas was awarded the 1914-15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal. Although he’s not on the St Mary’s War Memorial, he is remembered on Batley War Memorial.
One final point, there was another Thomas Gannon in the parish who served during the Great War. I have included his biography in the Served and Survived section.
Footnotes:
1. Cairns has various spellings, including Kairns through to Currans, Karans, Caren and variations on these.
2. Batley Reporter, 22 January 1887.
3. Dewsbury Chronicle and West Riding Advertiser, 09 April 1870.
4. Dewsbury Chronicle and West Riding Advertiser and Dewsbury Reporter, 16 August 1873.
5. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 27 September 1879.
6. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 21 February 1880.
7. 1881 Census, The National Archives (TNA), Ref RG11/4546/7/8/32.
8. Dewsbury Chronicle and West Riding Advertiser, 31 May 1884.
9. Dewsbury Chronicle and West Riding Advertiser, 14 June 1884.
10. Batley News, 11 June 1887.
11. John’s surname has various spellings including Collob and Colloe.
12. The service record indicating this is in the Royal Hospital Chelsea Service Documents, TNA, Ref WO97/4905/62. There are some slight discrepancies, e.g. age given as 18 years and 5 months, but other potential options have been eliminated, leaving only this Thomas Gannon as the likely candidate.
13. 2nd KOYLI Unit War Diary, TNA, Ref WO95-1558-1.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
Other Sources (not directly referenced):
• 1871 to 1901 England and Wales Censuses.
• Anglo-Boer War Website.
• Batley Cemetery Register.
• Bond, Reginald C. History of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the Great War, 1914-1918. London: P. Lund, Humphries, 1929.
• British Army Service Records.
• Cave, Nigel. Hill 60. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Cooper, 2013.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
• GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes.
• The Long, Long Trail website.
• Medal Index Card.
• Medal Award Rolls.
• Newspapers – various editions of the Batley News, Batley Reporter and Guardian and Dewsbury Chronicle and West Riding Advertiser.
• Parish Registers.
• Report and map on the operations of the 5th Division 17-21 April 1915 about the capture of Hill 60, south east of Ypres, (Catalogue ref: WO 158/216)
• Soldiers Died in the Great War.
• Soldiers’ Effects Registers.
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