There is an index card for this soldier in the Flintshire Roll of Honour in the County Record Office in Hawarden. It is filed with the Meliden cards. It bears the words ‘killed in action’ and ‘Lancashire Fusiliers’. There is nothing else. This card and the fact that he is listed on the memorial are the only two links that we have to Flintshire.
The soldier listed on this page is the only Thomas Moss in the Lancashire Fusiliers listed by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission. Until and unless we learn otherwise we will proceed with telling this soldier’s story. If anyone can help, please contact via the website Contact page.
The Register of Soldiers’ Effects (Accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk) in which the army calculated what moneys were owed to deceased soldiers includes an entry for Thomas Moss, Pte 1038 Lancashire Fusiliers. It says that one payment of £3.00 was made to his Father Isaac and another payment of £2 ..9sh ..8d was made to his mother Sarah
This gave us the names of his parents which allowed us to search for other archives on Ancestry.
There is a baptism recorded on the 2 November 1892 at St Luke’s in Weaste. Tom Fernley Moss was the name given to the son of Isaac and Sarah Elizabeth Moss. The child’s age was recorded as 0.
The census of 1901 records a family living at 67 Stowell Street, Salford. Head of the household was Isaac Moss aged 28 and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Moss aged 27. Their listed children were Tom 8, Nellie 7, Harold 5, Lillie 3, Elizabeth 2 and John Richard 1.
In 1911 this family was in 10 Rigby Street, Broughton, Manchester. Head of the household was Isaac Moss aged 38 – a ‘grey Cloth Porter’. His wife of 19 years , Sarah Elizabeth was 37. The census form tells us that she had given birth to 10 children and one had not survived. The children listed in the household were Tom 18 who was an unemployed bricklayer’s labourer, Nellie 17 was a Letter Press Printer, Harold 15 was a shipping worker. Lillie 14, Bessie 12, John Richard 11, Alice 8, Henry 6 were all at school and George was 1. They had a lodger – Alex Burns.
UK Soldiers who Died in The Great War 1914 -19, accessible on ‘Ancestry’ lists Thomas Moss. It confirms all the regimental information at the top of this page and adds that he enlisted in Salford. This source tells us he was killed in action.
His medal index card also on ‘Ancestry’ lists his three medals and says that his first theatre of war was The Balkans (Gallipoli) and that he entered it on the 5th May 1915. He was dead 11 days later.
There is absolutely no explanation as to why he was named on the Meliden Memorial.
This might not be the right soldier. Help!