Foreword

Thomas Henry Bashton was twenty-three and a coalminer from Felling (Co. Durham) when he enlisted at the outbreak of war in 1914. He was the seventh child of Thomas Henry (b.1849) and Jane Meggison who had nine children in total of which two had died in childhood.

Originally enlisting with the Durham Light Infantry Thomas was transferred to the newly formed Royal Naval Division one week later and would see his first action within a month in Belgium. Despite serving on three of the most notorious battlefields in British military history he would still be serving with the Division in Belgium four years later at the Armistice.

Thomas rarely commented on his time with the Division and we can only imagine his experiences and the number of pals that he lost during this period. The comments were scarce but those that were uttered are recorded below:
Gallipoli was always referred to as the Dardanelles and the Turks were the best fighters in the World.
There was a tale of buying a basket of oranges on the Suez Canal and dropping a rope down from the ship to the vendor's boat to haul them onboard.
Tanks were mentioned by his youngest son, Ronnie, many years later and the reply came back "First tank I saw got bogged down".
There was the story of a new recruit taking the pound notes from Thomas' money belt. After a pursuit Thomas caught up with the offender who promptly stuffed the money into his own mouth. Pinned down to a table by several of Thomas' mates his jaws were prised apart with a spoon. "It was covered in blood and spit but I got my money back".
He also once mentioned the horrendous conditions at Passchendaele; although to Thomas it was always Wipers and who are we to argue!
A century on and we can start to put some of these remarks into context.
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