Next Year - 100 Years Since the Outbreak of WW1

[Gronnuck]

Having followed this thread with interest I was prompted to research my own paternal Grandfather’s War Service. Until three years ago I didn't even know his name because my father only ever referred to him as 'his father' who died when he was very young.
On the 12 April 1915 at the age of 48 Granddad Thomas told the Recruiting Sergeant that he was 42 years old so he could join the Army for the duration of the war, the upper age limit being 45.
He was assigned to the Army Service Corps Remount Service presumably so his years of experience with horses and as a Carter could be put to good use. He was posted to the Ormskirk Remount Depot in Lancashire which cared for and trained horses arriving through the port of Liverpool.
At home in Edinburgh he left Granny Agnes and three daughters.
On the 11 November 1915 Thomas, a Private, was part of the 200 strong 40^th Remount Squadron. They boarded the SS Anchises at Devenport bound for Alexandria, Egypt. Anchises arrived on 18 November, however three days later, on the 22 November, the Squadron embarked on the SS Cardiganshire for Salonica in Greece, arriving there on 26 November 1915.
On 26 June 1916 Thomas was admitted to hospital with Rheumatic Fever and on the 10 July he was evacuated to Malta on the HMHS Dunluce Castle where he was admitted to St John’s Hospital on the 12 July.
On the 19 July he was sent to recover at one of camps at Ghain Tuffiena in Eastern Malta however he was readmitted to St John’s on 30 August.
The decision was made to have Thomas invalided out of Malta on the Hospital Ship Formosa on the 14 September 1916 and was transferred to RMS Aquitania at Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos. He eventually arrived back in the UK on 27 September 1916
On the 26 May 1917 he was transferred to the Class W Reserve and returned to civilian employment.
He continued being liable to recall until his discharge on the 14 December 1918. He was 52 years of age.
He was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
My own father was only six when Granddad Thomas died so his story was never fully told.

[trinkie]

Gronnuck, Thank you for sharing that interesting story. What a brave thing for your grandfather to do, at his age ! It brings a tear... Trinkie