Captain, Royal Army Medical Corps, attached Royal Scots.
Killed in action, 9th April 1917.
Buried in Bailleul Road West Cemetery, France.
Former student of medicine.
Thomas was born at Irlam on 4th March 1889, the son of Dr. William Young Martin a local doctor and Justice of the Peace and his wife Sarah Elizabeth, the youngest of four children. His mother died while he was a baby, but in 1909 his father re-married and would have another son. He attended Rossall Preparatory School near Cleveleys, and then on leaving studied medicine at Manchester University where he gained an M.B and Ch.B in 1912.
After University Thomas took up the post of House Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary and later Barnes Hospital near Cheadle. He was working here and living in Hale when war broke out in 1914, and enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the September of that year. He stood 5`11” tall and was single when commissioned into the Corps. By 1917 he was a Captain attached to the 11th Royal Scots as medical officer. Part of the 9th Scottish Division the battalion was heavily involved in the fighting on the Western Front and in early 1917 Thomas was awarded a Military Cross for bravery evacuating wounded during a trench raid. The citation read:- “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Hewas of the greatest assistance in organising the evacuation of the wounded across ‘No Man’s Land’ during the operation. He has on many previous occasions done fine work.”
In April 1917 the Battle of Arras began, and the 11th Royal Scots were tasked with capturing part of the German trench system at Point du Jour near Athies. During the action on 9th April Thomas was killed in action, his C.O wrote to the family explaining he had:- “…been killed by a shell whilst attending wounded under fire.”
Thomas’ effects were sent to one of his brothers William, also serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Far East.