10301: Thomas Hall - Royal Observer Corps
Thomas was born in 1891 at Mardon, Branxton in Northumberland. He later moved to Preston West Lodge prior to 1901 where his father Thomas was a gardener and groom. He had 1 brother Charles and 1 sister Margaret and in 1911 were living at Mitford, near Morpeth, as a Railway Surface Man. He married Isabella Foster Davidson in Sept 1914 at Chester-le-Street listing his occupation as a gardener, before joining the Royal Engineers as a Driver sometime in early 1915.
He went overseas as part of the 81st Field Company Royal Engineers, 19th Division, and saw service for the remainder of the war and was part of the British Army of Occupation having transferred from the 19th to the 41st Division in March 1919 having a photo postcard with the handwritten note "Your loving husband Tom, Taken at Hoffnungsthal, Coln" made for Isabella.
After the war he moved around the Scottish Borders and became a gardener and groom for Capt. Alan Goodson, who had served with the London Rifle Brigade and who had received the Military Cross during the War. Capt. Goodson had lived in Mardon and the areas around before settling at Marlefield near Kelso and would possibly have already known my Great Grandad and his family before employing him.
During the Second World War he enlisted in the Home Guard and his Defence Medal is now proudly displayed with his First World War medals and certificate from the 19th Division thanking him for his service. These were framed by my Auntie Pam as a gift for my Uncle Iain and they recently kindly gifted the frame to me.
Along with the rest of my family who served during the First World War, they had all passed before I was born, or when I was only a few years old. Thankfully the items relating to my Great Grandad Thomas were kept in the family and now I am able to share them for future generations as part of the work done by the organisers and volunteers of the Lest we Forget Project.
An update: I have just returned from visiting family in the North East and found a group photo which includes my Great Grandad Thomas Hall during WW2 and it turns out he was actually in the Royal Observer Corps and not the Home Guard as I stated in my original email. There are several people in the photo who have FWW medal ribbons.
His Defence Medal is mounted with his FWW medals and I now know this to be the Royal Observer Corps. He is front row, third from the left. I've attached a quick photo of the picture in question and the frame (lying to table to the left) with his FWW and WW2 medals.
