I believe Thomas’s parents Edward Nicholas and Sarah J. Bellis, were married in St. Mary’s Church in Chester in 1889. They were living in Chester Road, Broughton & Bretton on the 1891 census with Sarah’s father, widower Thomas Bellis 57 who was a Farm Labourer.   Edward Nicholas, 23 was also a Farm Labourer who had been born in Saltney, Flintshire.   Edward’s wife Sarah was 23 and had been born in Hawarden. Their name on this census had been spelt Nicholls.

They were still in Bretton on the 1901 census, Edward, 32 was listed as a ‘Chain Examiner’. Sarah Jane was 33.  Their  children were William Henry, 9, Thomas Edward, 8, Harry 3 and  Annie,1 ( All the children had been  born in Bretton, Flintshire).  Sarah Jane’s father Thomas Bellis. 67 was again in the household.

The 1911 census records them still in Bretton.  Edward, 43 was  a Foreman at the Chair Works. His wife of 22 years, Sarah was 43 and described as a ‘Housewife’. Five children had been born to them, but one had died.  The children were William Henry19,  a Clerk in a Chemical Dept.  Thomas Edward  17 was a Clerk Architect.  Henry 13  and Annie, 11 were at school.   There was a visitor Phyliss  Lyons, 4, a schoolgirl born in Chester.

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919 accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk  confirms Thmas Edward Nicholas’s regimental information above and tells us that he was born in Hawarden, Flintshire and enlisted in Chester. His medal card also on ‘Ancestry’ details his medals.

Thomas was also remembered on the Broughton War Memorial and the Hawarden County School Memorial.