Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Chief Petty Officer W. Thomas, Royal Navy, who served with Lieutenant Ogilvy’s battery of H.M.S. Terrible’s Naval Brigade during the Boer War, and with H.M.S. Fame’s Naval Brigade during the China War

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith (168900 A-B: W. Thomas, H.M.S. Terrible.); China 1900, 1 clasp, Taku Forts (W. Thomas, A.B., H.M.S. Fame.); 1914-15 Star (168900, A.B. W. Thomas, Act. C.P.O. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (168900 A.B. W. Thomas. C.P.O. R.N.) contact marks and edge bruising, generally nearly very fine (5) £400-£500

William Thomas was born in Liverpool on 19 May 1876 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class on 8 August 1892. Between 1892 and the outbreak of the Great War, he would serve with a very large number ships and shore establishments, attaining the rating of Able Seaman by 1896 and Petty Officer First Class by 1902. Of particular note was Thomas’s service between 1999 and 1901 when he served with the Naval Brigades in both the Boer and China wars. During the former, Seaman Thomas was a member of Petty Officer Taylor’s 12 pdr gun crew, in Lieutenant Ogilvy’s battery of H.M.S. Terrible’s Naval Brigade. After brief spells with H.M. ships Doris and Tartar and then back to Terrible, Thomas joined H.M.S. Barfleur on 10 May 1900, serving with this ship until December that year. During this period he served with the Naval Brigade of H.M.S. Fame at Taku Forts (confirmed on roll), possibly seconded to this ship’s brigade. During the Great War, Thomas, now a Chief Petty Officer, served at a number of shore establishments. Demobilised in February 1919, in November of that year he joined the Coast Guard, serving until March 1923.

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