Thomas William Pursey. Died 15 May 1915
Thomas’s father Charles Pursey, was born in early 1852 in Barkham, Berkshire. From his census records Charles was a farm labourer for most of his life. He married local girl Mary Cannon and with her had four sons and five daughters.
Tragedy was to touch the Pursey family when in 1891, two sons Charles (1883) and John (1889) were to both die in the same year. Charles was not to witness the death of his other two sons in the war as he died in 1909 in Berkshire, aged about 57. His wife Mary was born in Finchampstead in 1859 and was to watch her five girls Louisa, Elizabeth, Laura, Alice and Edith grow up to have families. Mary was to later marry the widower, Thomas Alexander.
Thomas William Pursey, who was the 8th child of Charles and Mary, was born in April 1896 in Barkham, Berkshire. In 1911 he was a labourer and during the Census was assisting the local milkman and living with the Alexander’s, his step family, on the Barkham Road, Wokingham. The Royal Berkshire’s however was to be his final calling and although it was stated he was in the 3rd Battalion, his Commonwealth Wargrave Record tells us he died with the 1stBattalion in ‘D’ Company. Royal Berks historian, John Chapman plots ‘D’ Company’s action on the night of Thomas’s death:
‘By 23:15 all had moved out in single file and lay in the open, with D behind C and B behind D The night was fairly dark, and C were about one hundred and fifty yards forward at zero before the enemy opened on it with rifles and machine-guns. They raced over the remaining 200 yards and bursting into the first trench, they bombed its defences, and in some cases were in such close contact with the enemy that they seized hold of the German rifles and shot their owners. Meanwhile D had come up through a storm of fire and pushed on for the second trench, eighty yards farther on. B too, arrived with tools and began consolidating; it had been somewhat delayed by Captain Belcher [BE0009] being killed early in the advance. At 23:45 Major Hill brought up two platoons of A and ordered the other two to follow. By this time the battalions on the flanks had consolidated, but the 7th King’s Liverpool had edged too much to their right, leaving part of the finch filled with Germans whose enfilade fire caused considerable loss to the Liverpools on the right and the Royal Berkshire on the left. About two hundred of them surrendered in the morning to the Liverpools. Thus by midnight the whole Battalion had been launched into the attack which was magnificently timed and magnificently executed, although not without heavy losses’.
Like his older brother only six months earlier, the First Battalion would be where he lost his life. He died on 15th May 1915, aged 19.
Name:PURSEY, THOMAS WILLIAM
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Berkshire Regiment Unit Text: “D” Coy. 1st Bn.
Age: 20
Date of Death: 15/05/1915
Service No:9151
Additional information: Son of Charles and Mary Pursey, of Brookside Cottages, Barkham Rd., Wokingham, Berks.
Grave/Memorial Reference:Panel 30.Memorial
Brookside Cottages,Barkham Road, Wokingham Berkshire
Toutley Cottages in King Street, Winnersh (parents)