Date of birth: 13/04/1883

Place of birth: Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom

Last known residence: 5 Portland Street, Hanley, Stoke On Trent, Staffordshire, Staffordshire

Profession: Grocer

Country: England, United Kingdom

Force: British Expeditionary Force

Rank: Rifleman

Service number: 50016

Enlistment place: South Elmsall, Yorkshire., England, United Kingdom

Units:  —  King's (Liverpool Regiment), 1/6th Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 20/09/1917

Place of death: Aisne Farm, Saint-Julien, Belgium

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

Age: 34

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Thomas Roberts was the son of Thomas and Martha Roberts. He was born on 13 April 1883 in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. He continued to live there and owned a grocery store. He married Margaret Edwards Jones and together they had three children. Thomas enlisted in the British Army and was as a Rifleman part of the 1/6th King's (Liverpool Regiment) (165th Brigade, 55th Division).

Thomas was killed on 20 September 1917 at the Battle of the Menin Road, part of the Battle of Passchendaele. The 165th Brigade's start lines ran from the vicinity of Spree Farm to the vicinity of Pommern Castle. The 1/5th and 1/6th King's were to take the final objective, which was the line some 100 yards south of Kansas Cross to some 100 yards east of Waterend House. The attack started at 5.40am. The 1/6th and 1/9th King's were involved in a heavy fight for Hill 35, but managed to take the position. In the morning, the 1/6th King's consolidated strongpoints around Hill 35. An attempt to take such a position south of Hill 35 resulted in many casualties. The surviving men of the battalion received reinforcements from the 1/5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and the 1/5th South Lancashire Regiment to also take Hill 37. At dusk, a German counterattack around Hill 37 was averted.

One of the casualties that day was 34-year-old Thomas Roberts. His body was recovered close to Hill 35, more specifically near Aisne Farm. He found his final resting place at Tyne Cot Cemetery (plot 8, row A, grave 2).

1/6 Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), WO-95-2926-2). https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used

British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920 (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), WO 372). https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used

British Army World War I Service Medal and Awards Rolls, 1914-1920 (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), WO 329). https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used

Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901 (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), RG13). https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used

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

McCarthy Chris, Passchendaele. The Day-by-Day Account (London, Unicorn Publishing Group, 2018), 84-85. Sources used

Soldiers Effects Records (National Army Museum, Chelsea (NAM) 1901-60; NAM Accesion Number: 1991-02-333). https://www.nam.ac.uk/ Sources used

Wyrall Everard. The history of the King's Regiment (Liverpool) : 1914-1919, Part III (Londen: Edward Arnold & Co., 1928), 513-514. Sources used

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/464452

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/3770757

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=id=7e532b23-67a8-407b-975b-1ebbc6c689e7