Captain George Devereux Scale
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Private Edward Brocket Grover
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Corporal John Ormonde Rowe
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Private Trevor Arnold Thomas
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John Ormonde Rowe was born in Neath in 1889
Corporal Rowe was K.I.A on 21st August 1916 in Belgium, North of Ypres. 
Photograph provided by Corporal Rowe's grand-daughter Mrs Julia Talevi
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 Reverend Thomas Thomas
Trevor was one of fourteen children born to Thomas and Matilda Thomas. Thomas was a Baptist Minister who moved to various Welsh parishes during his ministry. Consequently, the children’s places of birth varied. Trevor was born in Llangollen a few years before the family moved to Ruabon, where his sister, Elsie, was born. Elsie, also, was to serve in Alexandria during the First World War as a Queen Alexandra’s Nurse where she met her husband,Eric Robert Macdougall of the 1st/5th Highland Light Infantry.
By 1911 the family had moved again, this time to Egerton House, Newton, Porthcawl. Trevor was now a builder’s clerk in the town, having spent a few years previously, as a draper’s apprentice in Market Street, Haverfordwest. Yet, it was his training as a draper’s assistant that was to lead him to seek work in London.
Private Trevor Arnold Thomas
Private Thomas's photograph is provided by his great niece, Maggie Macdougall.
At the outbreak of war he enlisted in the 15th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers (1st London Welsh). Following Trevor’s home leave in September, the battalion was sent to France on 2nd December 1915. The battalion formed part of the 38th (Welsh) Division, which had originated out of an attempt to form a ‘Welsh Army Corps.’ It consisted of many volunteer units that had already been raised by public subscription and private projects. The Division moved to France between 21 November and 6 December 1915 and then remained in France and Flanders throughout the war.
The first major battle the Division was to take part in was The Battle of Albert in which the Division was used to attack and clear Mametz Wood, 7th – 13th July 1916. A large number of casualties resulted. The effect on the Division was so severe that it did not return to major action for almost a year. 
Private Trevor A Thomas survived Mametz, but was killed by a German sniper at 10am on 21st August 1916.
His commanding officer, 2nd Lieutenant W. Tudor Ellis, wrote to his family: Dear Mr. Thomas, It is with the greatest regret that I have to write to inform you of the death of your son Trevor Arnold Thomas of my platoon. We had not been in the trenches many hours before he was hit by a German sniper; death being instantaneous…………his body was laid behind the trenches. I am writing to your other son, who I believe is in the Y.M.C.A out here, and who met Thomas before he came into the trenches………… I remain yours sincerely, W .Tudor Ellis, 2nd Lieut. It was his brother Frank, who had been mentioned as working for the Y.M.C.A. Another brother, Arthur Rees Thomas, was a drill instructor with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in Britain. --------------------------------- The chaplain to the Battalion, the Rev James Evans, formerly Congregational minister at Aberavon, also, wrote to Trevor’s father: - Dear Mr. Thomas, ----------Today we reverently laid his body to rest in a British Cemetery behind the lines, and it was my privilege to officiate, while several of his intimate friends from the battalion were present………………….He was so faithful in all his services, so pleasant and cheerful always and his life such a pattern, that I mourn him as I would a brother. A cross will be put on his grave with full particulars, so that it can easily be identified after the war, and all his effects will be sent to you from the War Office. With deepest sorrow, yours sincerely, James Evans (Chaplain) 
The land south of Essex Farm ,Ypres, Belgium, was used as a dressing station cemetery from April 1915 to August 1917. The 49th (West Riding) Division buried their dead of 1915 in Plot I, and the 38th (Welsh) Division used Plot III in the autumn of 1916.
Private Thomas's grave is reference III.E.3 It was in Essex Farm Cemetery that Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps wrote the poem ' In Flanders Fields' in May 1915. |