Cyril Roy Thompson
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Cyril was born in 1899 in Huthwaite and was the son of John a picture frame maker and Alice Thompson, née Vardy of 14 New Street Huthwaite. His father John was born in 1864 in Bloxwich, Staffordshire and his mother Alice was born in 1865 in Huthwaite. Their marriage was recorded in June 1884 in the Mansfield Registration district, they went on to have seven children , sadly two died in infancy prior to the 1911 census. Their children were John Percy b1887, Phillip b1890, Arthur b1893, Cyril Roy b1899 and Reginald Aubrey b1906. In the 1901 census the family are living on New Street, Huthwaite, in the following 1911 census they are still at the address and are shown as John 47 yrs a picture frame maker and he is living with his wife Alice 46 yrs and their children John Percy 24 yrs a printer, Arthur 18 yrs a bobbin carrier, Cyril Roy 12 yrs and Reginald Aubrey 5 yrs they have also adopted a daughter named Lily Dora Ashwin 11 yrs born 1900 in Stratford, West Ham.
Cyril enlisted on 16th February 1917 at Mansfield, he gave his age as 18 yrs and 148 days , his address as 14 New Street, Huthwaite, his next of kin as his father John of the same address, his religion as Wesleyan and his occupation as shop assistant. He was initially posted to the North Staffordshire Regiment and then on 26th August 1917 he was posted to the 2nd Reserve Battalion, Royal Guernsey Light Infantry. It was on 23rd January 1918 that he embarked from Guernsey to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. He joined his battalion in the field on 3rd February 1918. It was during an action on 13th April 1918 at the Battle of Lys that he was posted missing and it was not for sometime that his anxious parents were informed that he was presumed killed on the same date. He has no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
10–14 April Battle of the Lys, east of Hazebrouck. German 6th Army under Von Quast smashes 5 miles through allied lines. The RGLI is bussed south to help stem the German advance. Hopelessly outnumbered, but holding the Germans in a fighting retreat from Le Doulieu to near Merris, the Battalion suffer an appalling 80% casualties rate.The RGLI is relieved by the Australian 1st Division. Field Marshall Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig wrote in his despatches, which was published in the London Gazette on 21 October 1918: "After very heavy fighting, in the course of which the 1st Battalion Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, 29th Division, Major-General D.E. Cayley C.M.G. commanding the division, did gallant service....."The fighting strength was now less than 110 officers and men.
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