Thomas Duckmanton
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Thomas was the son of John Thomas Duckmanton; mother not known. Thomas was born in Sheffield in about 1897 but no registration of his birth has yet been traced in either Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire registration districts. It is possible that he was registered in his mother's surname although all subsequent records are in the surname Duckmanton. His father married in 1901 and no record has yet been found of an earlier marriage. His father John Thomas (also known as Thomas) was born in Market Warsop, Nottinghamshire, on 26 February 1868, the only child of Samuel and Eliza Duckmanton (née Wilkinson). Samuel was born in Market Warsop in about 1843 and Eliza, the daughter of William and Ann Wilkinson, also in Market Warsop in 1847 and baptised in the parish church on 26 December 1847. Samuel and Eliza were married at SS Peter and Paul, Mansfield, on 27 January 1868. In 1881 Samuel, a wheelwright, and Eliza were living on Carr Lane, Market Warsop, with their son John (13). By the time of the next census the family was living on Back Lane, Market Warsop; John was also a wheelwright. By 1901 Thomas was living in Brightside, Sheffield, a boarder in the household of a widow, Harriett Pursglove (72). His son Thomas (4) was living with his grandparents, Samuel and Eliza, at 3 Carr Lane, Market Warsop. John Thomas married Lydia Wetton in 1901 (A/M/J Sheffield) and by 1911 they were living at 50 Leeming Lane, Mansfield Woodhouse, with their three children, Samuel b. Shirebrook 13 March 1902, John William b. Shirebrook 5 December 1903 and Henry b. Mansfield Woodhouse 15 December 1910. John was employed as a joiner at a colliery. They had two more children, Eliza b. 9 December 1913 (reg 1914) and Leonard b. 11 June 1918. His son Thomas, a colliery labourer (above ground), was still living with Samuel and Eliza at 3 Carr Lane and he may have continued to live with them until he joined the army. Eliza Duckmanton snr. died in 1913 (J/F/M Mansfield) and her husband Samuel on 18 December 1920; he was still living in Warsop. In 1939 when the England & Wales Register was compiled, John Thomas, an estate joiner, and Lydia were living at 8 Carr Lane, Market Warsop. Also in the household were their married daughter, Eliza Strike, and her husband Cyril (b. 27 June 1911), a colliery surface locomotive shunter, who had married in 1937. John Thomas died at 8 Carr Lane on 3 February 1940. Probate was awarded to his widow and son Samuel, a dairyman. Of their children, Samuel died in 1975, John William on 10 December 1981, Henry in 1978 (reg. J/F/M), Eliza in 2001 and Leonard in 1976. All their deaths were recorded in the Mansfield registration district.
2nd Bn Grenadier Guards. Thomas took part in the Guards' attack on Lesboeufs, a village 16 kilometres north-east of Albert, which lasted from 15 September 1916 until the successful capture of its objective on 25 September, the date of Thomas' death. Thomas was buried in what became the Guards' Cemetery, Lesboeufs (grave ref. I.B.14). CWGC - Guards' Cemetery Lesboeufs (extract): Lesboeufs was attacked by the Guards Division on 15 September 1916 and captured by them on the 25th. It was lost on 24 March 1918 during the great German offensive, after a stubborn resistance by part of the 63rd Bn. Machine Gun Corps, and recaptured on 29 August by the 10th Bn. South Wales Borderers. At the time of the Armistice, the cemetery consisted of only 40 graves (now Plot I), mainly those of officers and men of the 2nd Grenadier Guards who died on 25 September 1916, but it was very greatly increased when graves were brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries round Lesboeufs.'
Mansfield Reporter, 27 October 1916: ‘Private T Duckmanton Killed. News has been received of the death of Pte T Duckmanton, of the Grenadier Guards. He was the son of Mr T (sic) Duckmanton, of Leeming-lane, Mansfield Woodhouse, but was better known at Warsop, where he resided for some years with his grandfather. It was on the Somme that he was killed on September 25th.’ (britishnewspaperarchive.co.ui) Mansfield Reporter, ‘Deaths’, 27 October 1916: ‘Duckmanton. In loving memory of Pte T Duckmanton (Grenadier Guards), killed in action September 25th, 1916. Peaceful be thy sleep, dear son, ‘Tis sweet to hear thy name; In life we loved you very dear - In death we do the same. Your cheerful ways, your smiling face, Are something to recall; There is nothing left for us to see, But your photo, on the wall.’’ (britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) Registers of Soldiers' Effects: his stepmother Lydia Duckmanton was his sole legatee
