Thomas Whittingham Memorial

Although Thomas was born in Leicestershire, his father was from Walthamstow and his mother from Norfolk.  Walter Godfrey Whittingham married Edith Mary Gordon Bensley a Solicitor’s daughter on 2nd January 1889 in Eaton St Andrews in Norfolk.  In 1881 Walter was working as a Booksellers Assistant, but at the time of his marriage he was a Clerk in Holy Orders.

The couple moved to Melbourne Street in Leicester, their first child Mary, was born in 1890 and the 1891 Census shows that the couple had two servants, one was a Nurse Domestic.  Thomas was born on 12th June 1893 and by 1901 Walter was a Clergyman of the Church of England and the family were living at The Vicarage, Lower Weedon in Daventry.  Also living with them was Walter’s sister Evelyn who was a Governess.  Their third child, Arthur was born in 1902 while they were living in Northamptonshire.

In 1904 The family moved to The Vicarage in Knighton and Walter became the Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church as well as St Michael’s & All Angels Church.  Their fourth child Robert was born in 1908.

Thomas was listed as wounded on the Casualty list by the War Office on 8/4/1915.  He was Killed in Action aged 22 in France at the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13/10/1915.   As can be seen from  his memorial plaque that used to hang in the church,  Thomas was a Sidesman (usher or assistant churchwarden) at St Michael’s Church.

On 12/11/1915 the Northampton Mercury reported – Lieut. Whittingham who was killed in Action on October 13, was a son of the Rev. W G Whittingham formerly Vicar of Weedon.  One of his fellow officers wrote of him. “He was absolutely fearless.  He mounted the parapet walking stick in one hand and revolver in the other.  He walked as a son of England should walk at such a time.”

He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Loos Memorial in France.  His name also appears on the War Memorial at St Mary Magdalene Church as well as on the Oxford Dragon School War Memorial where he had been educated.

The below is an extract from https://skipperwar.wordpress.com, the Great War site of Oxford Preparatory School (OPS) where the Old Boys are referred to as “Dragons”. The retired Registrar of the School, Desmond Devitt, contacted our WFA email box to advise us of the existence of this site.

It transpires that, only four days after writing to console us on the deaths of Leslie Eastwood & Tom Higginson, Tom Whittingham was himself killed along on October 13th at Loos.

He was killed in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The 4th Leicesters had the honour of leading the attack and Tom’s platoon was in the first line. He sent a message, which was passed down the line, of best wishes to the men in their effort, while they stood waiting for him to lead them over the parapet. When the time came, having first mounted the parapet, with a walking-stick in one hand and revolver in the other, he led the advance at a slow double over the 150 yards that separated them from the enemy, through machine-gun and rifle bullets, till they reached the limit of the hand-grenade range of the Germans, where they received a momentary check while our bombers replied.

Then Tom called on them to advance, and they were within a few yards of the enemy’s trenches when a German officer threw a bomb, which hit the ground and exploded right in front of him – killing, it is said, five and wounding others.

Tom is the third Old Dragon to die in the fighting around Loos, content we hope in that it is (as he said himself in his letter) “the noblest death a man can die.”

From the OPS, Tom gained an exhibition to go to Felsted School, where he joined the OTC. From there he went to L’Ecole de Commerce in Lausanne and then spent six months in Germany in the Hartz Mountains. Returning home in 1913 he was articled to a firm of accountants and at the same time gained a commission in the Leicestershire Territorials.

We heard that, as Scout Officer, he took personal interest in the men under him; he also applied himself to know and help the young fellows in an artisan quarter of a large town parish, taking part in their games and working up a Bible class, and getting to know them in their home life. In a short time he won a considerable influence.

As a boy at the OPS, his influence on others was always for the very best, and his steady, quiet determination to get the right thing done in the right way, gave promise of a good, useful life.

Tom was wounded in April and he came to visit us all last term, well on the road to recovery. He returned to the Front on July 12th. He was one of our most loyal old boys and we shall miss him sorely. It seems only yesterday that he and Alasdair Macdonell were with us. Their deaths touch us most profoundly.