Main CPGW Record
Surname: TOMMAS
Forename(s): William
Place of Birth: Whitewell, Yorkshire
Service No: 418731
Rank: L/Corporal
Regiment / Corps / Service: Canadian Infantry
Battalion / Unit: 'C' Coy 42nd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada)
Division: 3rd Canadian Division
Age: 40
Date of Death: 1918-03-10
Awards: ---
CWGC Grave / Memorial Reference: G.W.V.A. 16.
CWGC Cemetery: TORONTO (PROSPECT) CEMETERY
CWGC Memorial: ---
Non-CWGC Burial: ---
Local War Memorial(s): Not Listed (View Names Not Listed on a Local War Memorial)
Additional Information:
William Tommas (born 22 February 1878) was the son of John and Ann Maria Tommas, née Moore. John, a widower, married Ann in 1876; he was born at Tosside, Yorkshire and Ann at Burnley, Lancashire.
1881 Bowland Forest (Lower Division) Yorkshire Census: Higher Whitewell - Willm Tommas, aged 3 years, born Bowland Forest L.D., son of John and Alice [sic] Maria Tommas.
1891 Bowland Forest (Lower Division) Yorkshire Census: Higher Whitewell - William Tommas, aged 13 years, born Bowland, Yorkshire, son of John and Ann Maria Tommas.
1901 Blackpool, Lancashire Census: 45, Warley Road - William Tommas, aged 23 years, born Whitewell, Yorkshire, son of Hannah [sic] M. Tommas, widow.
William was married to Esther Cunliffe in 1901.
William attested for the Canadian Army at Montreal on the 24 April 1915. He was invalided to Canada after serving in France and died of erysipelas and pneumonia at Spadina Military Hospital, Toronto.
William is commemorated on the Blackpool War Memorial and by a memorial inscription in St Helen's Churchyard, Waddington, on the gravestone of his sister, Hannah Marion Tommas. (When seen in 2018, the gravestone had been laid flat for safety reasons).
Canadian service records: http://www.baclac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef
Data Source: Memorial Inscription on Family Gravestone
---
Entry in West Yorkshire Pioneer Illustrated War Record: ---
---
Regiment / Corps / Service Badge: Canadian Infantry
Divisional Sign / Service Insignia: 3rd Canadian Division
View Additional Image(s)
Additional Photo(s) For Soldier Records
King's Arms Hotel, Moor Street, Ormskirk, Lancashire ('Ormskirk Advertiser' c. 1905-07)
William Tommas, who was the proprietor of the King’s Arms, is pictured with his wife, Esther, in front of the Hotel
Kindly supplied by Dorothy Broady-Hawkes
Memorial Chamber of Canada’s Parliament Buildings, Ottawa
In the Memorial Chamber are the eight ‘Books of Remembrance’ that contain the names of more than 120,000 Canadians who gave their lives in the service of Canada
Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial (Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman, Clitheroe)
Page from the First World War ‘Book of Remembrance’: Private William Tommas
Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial (Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman, Clitheroe)
---
---
Comment on this Soldier Record
You can leave comments on this soldier record. Please note all comments will be manually approved before they appear on the website.
William Tommas ran the Talbot Hotel, Lytham, Lancashire in 1901 and then took on the King’s Arms Hotel, Ormskirk in 1905. He emigrated to Niagara in 1912.