Tom Pettit

His service record does not appear to have survived however the document Soldiers died in the Great War states that he was born and lived in Sturton and that he enlisted in Gainsborough, his medal cards show that he first entered a theatre of war in France on 14th July 1915 and that he was entiled to the three medals, 1915 Star, Victory Medla and British War medal. He died of wounds and is buried in Lijssenthoek Miltiary cemetery, Belgium Cpl Tom Pettit Retford Times 25 Feb 1916 News was received at Sturton on Monday from the front that Cpl Tom Pettit had died in hospital from the effects of a bullet wound in the chest received during the recent German attack on the British trenches. At the comparatively early period of the war he enlisted in the London Regt and had been at the front for some months. Previous to enlisting his whole life had been spent in the village and as both boy and man he was universally liked and the whole village will deeply sympathise with his parents in their great sorrow. This is the third death among Sturton’s recruits, Two of them natives and one who was in agricultural service. Early in the present year, writing to thank the scholars of his old school for a small present that he had received from them, Cpl Pettit spoke of the pleasure the present had given him and how such things tended to take away the gloom from life in the muddy trenches when men were under the Huns’ terrible shell fire. The knowledge that his life was given in the service of his country will soften the grief felt for his loss.

CWGC - Son of Sarah Jane Pettit, of Sturton-le-Steeple, Retford, Notts, and the late Clement Pettit.