Tom Titcombe
Private Tom Titcombe (3793), 1st Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment
Summary
Tom was born in Great Coxwell on the 16th of November 1875. He joined The Wiltshire Regiment on the 25th of September 1893 and died of wounds on the 15th of September 1914. He is remembered on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial. Tom was 38 when he died, following the Battle of The Marne, there is no known grave.
Service
Tom completed his Militia Attestation for 6 years on 25th September 1893 for the 3rd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment, he was one month shy of his 19th birthday.
He is shown with the 3rd Battalion on his Attestation Form, and we know by the 1911 census Tom Is based with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion at the Le Marchant Barracks, Roundway, Devizes – aged 34 he is single and a private in the Wiltshire Regiment.
I’m not clear on when Tom moved from the 3rd Battalion to the 1st Battalion so he may have served In India (1894 – 1908) and South Africa (1908 – 1913), the Book of Remembrance states that:
Regimental Records and History reveal; He joined the army from Highworth. Served in India from 1892 (sic) – 1908, then in S. Africa, based at Pietermaritzburg from 1908 – 1913.
We do know that in 1901 the 3rd (Militia) Battalion arrived on St Helena for a year's duty as guards for the Boer Prisoners of War held there.
The following eulogy was read by Robbie Burns of Great Coxwell on Sunday November 11th 2018, it is reproduced here without changes, for a more up to date biography for Tom please see the Biography section further down the page.
Many thanks to Robbie for doing all the detailed military history research for Tom Titcombe.
Private Tom Titcombe, 1st Bn, The Wiltshire Regiment.
Introduction.
I asked David Williams if I could say a few words about one of the names on the memorial stone. I took the first name on the list of fallen in the 1914-18 war, Tom Titcombe, who you can see recorded here. My thanks to Gavin Anderson for his wonderful research.
Private Tom Titcombe, (Army number 3793), son of Elizabeth, (known as Bess or Betsy) and George, had 2 brothers, William and Arthur, and a younger sister, Maria. He was a career soldier. He had enlisted into the Wiltshire Regiment in 1894, served in both South Africa and India, and was 38 years old at the beginning of the War. The Regiment comprised three battalions, two regular and one reserve battalion. We find Tom serving with the 1st Battalion, based at Jellalabad Barracks, Tidworth, on 4th August 1914 when war with Germany was declared. The Battalion was ordered to mobilise at 5.45 that afternoon. A robust county regiment, it prided itself on its marksmanship with the new Short Lee Enfield rifle, and its ability to march long distances. It was a disciplined, professional unit of 26 officers and 960 men.
On 13th August, they embarked for France from Southampton on two ships, the SS Princess Ena and the SS South Western, arriving in Rouen the next day. The battalion entrained for the journey East on 16th August and then marched for several days arriving at Ciply, south of the Mons- Conde canal on 22nd August.
The tiny BEF, just 60,000 strong, was divided into two Corps each of two divisions. The French 5th Army was on their right. The Allies were facing 1.1 million men of the German First Army under Von Gluck. Tom and the 1st Battalion were dug in shallow shell scrapes and two days later, on 24th August they faced their first engagement and suffered their first casualties. Lt Col Halstead, their CO had his horse shot from under him on the first day of the Battle of Mons, as it became known.
Although II Corps gave a good account of itself, (between 8 and 10,000 German casualties) with the French collapsing on their right, Tom and his chums were ordered to withdraw and fall back on Le Cateau. By 26th August, Tom’s Corps Commander, Sir Horace Smith-Dorien, decided that his men were too exhausted to continue, and ordered them to stand and fight.
Le Cateau was an extraordinary battle. I have walked the battlefield and stood in the cornfield where Tom and the 1st Bn, the Wiltshires lay down in stubble fields and engaged the Germans at a range of 650 yards. They had no time to dig in. 15 rounds per minute, accurate rifle fire on a bewildered enemy. The German infantry thought the engagement was so intense, it must have been machine gun fire. Ordered to withdraw after several hours of withering fire, Tom’s formation simply stood up and left the field of battle – to quote one of Tom’s colleagues, ‘like a crowd leaving a racecourse’.
The subsequent withdrawal, known as the Great Retreat, some 200 miles all the way back to the River Marne proved gruellingly hard on the well- disciplined battalions of the BEF.
In early September, the British and French forces fought the German onslaught to a standstill on the River Marne. By then, the French Government in panic had entrained to Bordeaux, assuming Paris was lost. Tom’s battalion was involved in the subsequent counter attack across the River Aisne. The Battalion suffered heavy losses over 9 days and was finally relieved on 22nd September and given 4 days rest. But sadly, by then, Tom had been mortally wounded.
Records are contradictory regarding Tom’s death. The Army War Records record his death as 15th October, this memorial identifies the day before, 14th October as the day he died. Yet the battalion war diary, written up each day by the Battalion adjutant, records his death at 15th September.
What we do know is that the Battalion crossed the third bridgehead over the river Aisne on 14th September, the railway bridge they had to cross had been shelled, so an improvised footbridge of single planks of wood had been positioned. They then advanced taking casualties in support of 1 Royal Irish. Its here that they dug in and this was where Tom quite possibly received his wound in the subsequent artillery attack. He is recorded has having died of wounds, as opposed to killed in action, which means that he would have been stretchered back to the battalion aide post and then to the Divisional Casualty Clearing Station. No longer with his mates, and with no morphine to take away the pain, he would have only had a cigarette and his God for comfort.
By the end of October, the Battalion had suffered nearly 1000 casualties and by the end of the War, the Wiltshires had 4924 officers and men killed in action.
Tom’s few weeks of soldiering in France was pivotal to the survival of the BEF in 1914 and the subsequent Allied victory 4 years later. He was one of the ‘Old Contemptibles’, revered by the New Army and the Kitchener Army that followed, and rightly so.
Tom's memorial is at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre, on the South bank of the river Marne, along with 3764 of his compatriots.
Biography
With many thanks to Richard Titcombe, Tom is Richard's 2nd cousin, 4 times removed, Richard filled in some important gaps and added more detailed information from his records.
Tom Titcombe was born in Great Coxwell on Tuesday November 16th 1875, and baptised (Thomas) at St Giles Church in the village the following year on the 13th of February 1876.
His parents George and Elizabeth lived in the village according to the census of 1881, and by that time they were a household of 6; George was 54 and Elizabeth 39 and they had 4 children aged 8 or under living at home with them.
William the eldest was 8 (b. 1873) and the youngest, Maria, was only 11 months (b. 1880); in between were Tom and his younger brother Arthur (b. 1877); those of school age went to the local school – which had opened in 1864, Tom attended from 18th May 1879 to 21st September 1887.
A lot had happened to Tom’s parents before they settled in Great Coxwell.
Tom’s mother Elizabeth (Daubney) was born around October 1842 in Little Coxwell and baptised there at St Mary’s Church.
By 1851 she was living in Great Coxwell with her parents John and Jane; 2 brothers William and Joseph and 2 sisters, Harriet and Hannah.
Ten years later she was a servant in the Archer household over in Lechlade, but only 3 years later in 1864 she had her first child, a daughter named Jane Harriet – we can only assume named for her mother and her sister; the father is not recorded.
Jane was baptised at St Giles in Great Coxwell on the 29th of May 1864.
Elizabeth and George were married a year later in 1865, on the 10th of October at St Giles in Great Coxwell, Elizabeth was 23 and George 38.
However by November of the same year, George was in trouble with the law:-
“On Monday last George Titcombe, of Great Coxwell, labourer, was charged with using threatening language towards his wife, Elizabeth Titcombe, and was committed for three months in default of finding sureties.”
Times were therefore tough for Elizabeth and young Jane, and reconciliation with George seemed unlikely so by 1868 Elizabeth and Jane were in the Faringdon Union Workhouse and Elizabeth’s second child John was born on October 1st, although illegitimate.
Although George was not the father of John, he was baptised as the son of George and Elizabeth in Faringdon on October 15th.
John’s biological father is named as Charles Legg of Great Coxwell, Charles appears to have been a bit of a ne'er-do-well too, The Faringdon Advertiser reports in the March 29th 1873 edition:
“Charles Legg, of Great Coxwell, sheep dipper, was charged with stealing a quantity of coal, of the value of two shillings, the property of Richard Cave. The prosecutor, who is a baker and coal dealer, at Great Coxwell, stated that on the morning of the 18th inst. He went to his coal shed to weigh out some coal for a customer, when he found some had been stolen. He went into his garden, and there saw footmarks leading from the shed. The prisoner lived in a cottage at the further end of his garden. Police-constable Borlease, stated that on the afternoon of the 18th inst., he went with the prosecutor and inspected the place where the coal had been stolen and found footmarks with marks of coal dust in them. He followed the footmarks through the garden, down to the prisoner’s door; he knocked at the door and the prisoner opened it. He told him he wanted to see his boots, as Mr Cave had lost some coal, and witness suspected him, he replied “you shan’t have my boots,” but on witness telling him he should take him to Faringdon and get his boots there, he took them off and gave them to him. Witness compared the boots with the footmarks, and found them exactly alike. He then went back to the prisoner and enquired what coal he had, and found the coal produced in the coal house. It was Forest of Dean coal, similar to what Mr Cave sold. Prisoner said he had bought this of Charles Gosling a day or two ago. He covered over the footmarks with various articles and took the prisoner into custody, and the next day pointed out the footmarks to Superintendent Reece, and assisted him in taking the impressions produced. On the 20th, he again examined the prisoner’s premises, and found 84 lbs. of coal of the same description, hidden under some straw in the pigsty. Superintendent Reece then produced impressions taken from the footmarks in the garden, and they corresponded in every minute particular with the soles of prisoner’s boots. The impressions were taken with a composition of resin and wax. He found marks of coal dust in some of the foot prints. Mr Lovett, who appeared for the prisoner, then addressed the Bench on his behalf. Convicted and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour.”
On census day 1871 Elizabeth, Jane age 4 and John age 2 were staying in the Faringdon Union Workhouse, by the following February John has sadly died and was buried at St Giles on 7th February 1872.
However we know that George and Elizabeth were reconciled and back in Great Coxwell by 1881 living with their 4 younger children, William, Tom, Arthur and Maria.
Jane, then aged 17, was now living (or least was staying on census day) at Brixton Farm, Thrupp, as a Dairy Maid and Domestic Servant. Jane would go on and marry William Burnett in 1891, move to London and have 5 children before her death in 1943.
George and Elizabeth went on to have 2 more children; twins George and Elizabeth were born on the 14th of July 1882. Sadly George died a couple of months later and Elizabeth died at the age of 5 in January 1888; both are buried at St Giles.
George, Elizabeth, William, Tom, Arthur and Maria settle in the village and by 1891 Maria is still at school but William, Tom, Arthur and George are all farm labourers.
Tom is 16 and his father the wrong side of 60, although listed as 60 on the census form, perhaps Tom has decided that farming is not for him because in 1893 he has signed up for 6 years in the 3rd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment (25 Sep 1893) aged almost 19.
The family enter the 20th century and in February 1901 George died aged 74, he was buried at St Giles on February 16th 1901.
By the time of the 1901 census;
- Elizabeth was living with her niece Jane Belcher in Great Coxwell,
- William had married Kate Draper and was living in Kensington,
- Tom was in the army – possibly overseas in India,
- Arthur (Frederick) was living with Jane and her husband William at 88 Talbot Road, Paddington – he was a Railway Policemen, and
- Maria was as servant in Woolstone in the Parker household.
Maria went on to have 2 children, Bessie in 1907 and Evelyn May in 1920, in 1911 Bessie is living with her Grandmother Elizabeth in Great Coxwell, and we can only assume Maria is still in service because by 1921 she still single and is working down in Eastbourne in the Warren household.
By 1921 Elizabeth is living in Great Coxwell, she is nearly 80 years old and has lost a husband and 4 children including Tom in the war, and she is caring for 14 year old Bessie and 16 month old Evelyn May – she appears to have been an incredibly strong woman.
Elizabeth died aged 83 in October 1925 and was buried at St Giles on the 10th of October 1925.
Artefacts
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Record
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Certificate
- Ancestry Tree - Link
Sources
- Berkshire Record Office; National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914, C/ER42
- Oxfordshire Family History Society, Oxfordshire Parish Registers CD, OXF-FAR03, Great Coxwell Baptisms
- Oxfordshire Family History Society, Oxfordshire Parish Registers CD, OXF-FAR03, Great Coxwell Marriages
- Berkshire Chronicle, 02 Dec 1865, Page 5
- Oxfordshire Family History Society, Oxfordshire Parish Registers CD, OXF-FAR02, FARINGDON Union Workhouse Baptisms/Births & Deaths
- Oxfordshire Family History Society, Oxfordshire Parish Registers CD, OXF-FAR02, FARINGDON Bastardy Orders
- The Faringdon Advertiser March 29th 1873
- https://www.thewardrobe.org.uk/research/history-regiments/duke-edinburghs-wiltshire-regiment-1881-1920-wiltshire-regiment-duke-edinburghs-1920-1959
- https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=5022
- https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/the-duke-of-edinburghs-wiltshire-regiment/
- Artefact copyright remains with original owner