Willmore, Thomas Albert

Age: 30
Date of birth: 23rd May 1909

Parents: William Alfred and Ada Edith (nee Pinfield Wells) Willmore
Wife: Elsie Mary V. Heathcock of Warwick
Address: Not known

Occupation: Career soldier

Thomas was born on 23rd May 1909 and baptised on 30th June 1909 at St Cuthbert’s in Winson Green, Birmingham. At the time his father William Alfred (1881-1933) is described as a labourer, living at 11 Cuthbert Cottages.

By 1911, the family were living at 65 Medina Road, Greet, Birmingham and Thomas had an elder sister, Dorothy Emma (1907-1998), and a younger sister, Elsie May (1911-1984), who was under one year old.

In 1939 Thomas’s widowed mother Ada Edith (1882-1961) was still living at 65 Medina Road with possibly her son William, born in 1912.

Thomas married a Warwick girl, Elsie Mary Violet Heathcock (1916-1999) in Q2 1938.  According to the 1939 census Elsie was living with her married sister Maud at 11 St James Road, Leamington Spa and her occupation recorded as unpaid domestic duties.

Elsie remarried in Warwick in 1948 to Erwin H. Broschiet. They had one daughter Glenys born in 1949. She died in 1967 aged 17.

 

Military Service

Rank & Number: Private, 5105118
Regiment/Service: Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Brigade/Division: 2nd Battalion
Date of death: 29th May 1940
Cause of death/Battle: Hit in the stomach by shrapnel
Commemorated/Buried: Buried in Dunkirk Town Cemetery, Nord, France. C Plot 2, Row 9, Grave 6
Awards:
Commemorated locally at: All Saints Church, Emscote

A 1931 voters list shows that Thomas was a Private with the RWR.

Thomas was in the Expeditionary Force and was killed during the withdrawal to Dunkirk. He was posted as missing before his death was confirmed.

Contributors

  • Unlocking Warwick Research Group
  • Cemetery photograph courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)

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