Year of birth: 1877

Place of birth: Gateshead, Durham, England, United Kingdom

Last known residence: 20 Grosvenor Street, Gateshead, Durham, England, United Kingdom

Profession: Labourer

Country: England, United Kingdom

Force: British Expeditionary Force

Rank: Private

Service number: 31245

Enlistment date: 24/03/1916

Enlistment place: Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, United Kingdom

Units:  —  Durham Light Infantry, 13th Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 12/10/1917

Place of death: Reutel, Beselare, Belgium

Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Age: 40

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Joseph Thompson, a former labourer, was born in 1887 in Gateshead, Durham, England. He was the son of George and Mary Thompson, who are presumed to have died when Joseph was young. Before the war he had previously served 6 years as part of the 4th Voluntary Battalion Durham Light Infantry and 4 years with the Royal Garrison Artillery. On march 24th, 1916, he enlisted at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. He served as a private in the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion Durham Light Infantry. On 31st March 1917 he was attached to the 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, part of the 68th Brigade, of the 23rd Division.

On the 10th of October 1917 the 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry relieved the front line troops at the Reutel Crossroads, facing the village of Beselare. The relief was complete on the morning of the 11th, establishing the headquarters at the Butte in Polygon Wood. During the 11th and the night of the 12th the enemy shelled the front and support lines, prompting the headquarters to move south to the edge of Polygon Wood. The Battalion was relieved on the night between the 12th and 13th of October 1917 and moved to Railway dugouts at Zillebeke.

Joseph Thompson, aged 40, was killed in action on October 12th, 1917. Between the 11th and the 12th of October forty men were wounded and five men were killed. Private Thompson was one of the men killed that day. He has no known grave and is remembered on panel 130 of the Tyne Cot Memorial.

13 Battalion Durham Light Infantry (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), WO 95/2182/2). https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used

Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911 (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), RG14). https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used

War Office: Soldiers’ Documents, First World War (The National Archives, Kew (TNA) WO 363). https://www.ancestry.com/ Sources used

Wilfrid Miles, The Durham Forces in the Field, 1914-18 (London, Cassell and Company, 1920), 195. Sources used

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/827547

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=f3bde345-ed8c-4359-8d90-c5bd5c893d25

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4418020