Thomas Edward Hall (known as Ted) was baptised a t St Lawrence Church on 8 th January 1893. He was th e eld est of the fourtee n children born to Ch arl es Hall a farm l abo ure r a nd his wife Fanny. Thre e of their children died i n infancy. Tho mas would hav e be en educ ated at th e village school u n til h e was 14 years old and the n h e foun d work a s a farm labourer. Whe n Th omas join ed the British army is no t known, but he was enlisted into t he Sou th Wale s Borderers (SWB) in Stafford and after traini ng was posted to the 12 th Battalion. 12 t h SWB first went to France with 119 th Brigade, 40 th Division, landing a t Le Havr e on 2 n d June 1916. Inter estingly, the 12 th SWB was, a Bantam battalion of Welsh coal miners raised in January 1915 fro m men who were below t he British army’s nor mal minimum heig ht of 5ft 3ins. How ever, recruit ing h ad bee n slow and the numb ers we re ma de up o f men fro m th e Midlands and Northern England w ho i n gener al were labourers not miners. Thomas died aged 28, shot by a sniper, on 22nd November 19 17 at Cambrai, Bourlo n Wood. He has no known grav e bu t is remembere d o n the Cambrai Memori al at Louv erval, Franc e . A sister of Thomas Edward’s was Elsie Minni e, th e a dop ted daug hter of Fa nny Hall’s siste r, Alice Ve nabl es. Te d an d Elsie Minnie wr ot e to each ot her t hroug ho ut his wa r days a nd w ere planning to tell th e family of their attachment, after the war. Elsie never married and kept Thomas Edward's letters which were buried with her when she died. His younger brother Absalo m, di ed of wounds received at Gallipoli on 23 rd Jun e 1915.

Thoma s E. Ha ll

Private 23860 - 1 2 th Battalion South Wales Borderers Killed in Acti on 2 2 nd Nove mber 191 7 – a ged 28 Re me mbered on Cambrai Me morial, Louverval

Cambrai Memorial

Historica l Info rmation The Cambrai Memorial commemor ates more than 7,000 servicem en of t he Unit ed Kingdom an d South Africa who died in the Ba ttle of Cam brai in Nov ember an d Decemb er 1917 and whose graves are not known. Sir Douglas Hai g described the object of the Cambrai oper ations as the gainin g of a 'l ocal success by a sudd en a ttack at a poin t where the enemy did not expect it' an d to some extent they succeeded. The proposed method of assault was new, with no prelimina ry artillery bombardme nt. Instead, tanks would be used to bre ak thro ugh the Ger man wire, with the infa ntry followi ng u nder the cover of smoke barrages. The at tack began early in th e morning of 20 N ovem ber 1917 and initial adv ances w ere remarka ble. How ever, by 22 November, a halt was called for res t an d reorganisatio n, allowing th e Germans to reinforc e. Fro m 23 to 28 Nov em ber, the figh ting was concentrated almost entirely around Bourlon Wood and by 29 November, it was cle ar that the Germans were rea dy for a major co unt er attack. Duri ng t he fierce figh ting of t he next five days , much of the groun d gained in the in itial days of the attack was lost. For the Allies, th e results of the battle were ult imately disappointi ng but valu able l essons were learnt about new strategies an d tactical approaches to fighti ng. The Germa ns had also discovered tha t th eir fixed lines of defenc e, no matter how well prepared, were vuln era bl e.