Born: 24 March 1885
Died: 2 October 1916
Buried: St Sever Cemetery, Rouen
Address: 312 Dudley Hill Road
Parents: Charles & Mary Anne, nee Eyre
Spouse: Ethel, nee Wedgewood
Siblings: Six brothers two sisters
Occupation: Labourer
Organisations/clubs:
Military
Rank: Private
Medals/awards:
Rolls of Honour:
Children:
Regiment: Durham Light Infantry
Tom Mannifield
Tom Manninfield was born on the
22nd of March 1885 and baptised
at St Luke’s Church, Eccleshill. He
was the seventh of nine children of
Charles and Mary Anne, nee Eyre.
The couple lived in Doncaster and
Wakefield before moving to
Eccleshill around 1878.
Charles died in 1890 aged 45 years,
a few months before the birth of his
last child.
In 1898 Mary Anne died aged 47
years and Tom and his brother
Harry went to live at Highcliffe
Place, Dudley Hill, with their elder
sister Maud Mary who had married.
In 1901 Tom was working as a
bottler of beer. By 1911 he was
living with his eldest
brother John David at 59
Harris Street,
Middlesbrough, and at 25
years of age was working
as a labourer.
The same year he
married Ethel
Wedgewood who had
been born in
Middlesbrough in 1891 and they
had one daughter Lilian born in
1912.
Tom enlisted in 1914 as Private
24205 in the 1/5th Battalion of the
Durham Light Infantry and landed
at Boulogne on the 14th of May
1915.
During the Battles of the
Somme in 1916 Tom’s
Battalion was not called up
to the front until the 15th of
September when his unit
fought in both the Battle of
Flers-Courcelette 15th to
22nd September and the
Battle of Morval 25th to
18th September 1916.
It was during one of these battles
that Tom was wounded and he later
died of these wounds on the 2nd of
October 1916. He was 31 years of
age.
He is buried in the St Severe
Cemetery in Rouen. During the
whole of the 1st World War Rouen
was the centre for many hospitals
and most of the dead from these
hospitals were taken to the city
cemetery of St Severe.
In 1916 it was found necessary to
begin an extension and this is
where Tom is buried.
Tom does not appear on the St
Luke Church memorial quite
possibly because he had moved
away from the area but he was born
and bred in Eccleshill and he is
mentioned in the Parish Magazine
of that time and his death wa
eported in the local paper.
He left his effects to his widow
Ethel who received £4.8s on the
15th July 1917 and the War
Gratuity of £9.0.0d on the 12th
December 1919.
.
Researched and written by Jean
Britteon, to whom many thanks
