Private Thomas Hindmarsh

Private Thomas W. Hindmarsh, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He died at Home on 19th October 1916 of wounds received in action during the Battle of the Somme and is buried in Ayton Kirkyard. He was the son of Mr and Mrs Hindmarsh of North Lodge, Ayton and had enlisted in the Regular Army with the Seaforth Highlanders in 1900. He had served in India and Egypt before leaving to work for A.L. Miller as an auctioneer and later the Land Valuation Office.  He had been wounded in action in France during the fighting on the Somme where he had been a Battalion sniper and had been evacuated to St Lukes Hospital in Halifax where his arm had been amputated. Sadly infection set in and he never recovered. He was buried in Ayton with full military honours. The second photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as the Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby the Division had fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915 during the Battle of St. Julien only days after landing on the Continent.