Thomas Pattison Walker Rogers was born on 28 November 1895, son of Pudsey-born Simeon Rogers and his wife Emma, nee Walker. The first we hear of Thomas’s war is of a narrow escape reported in the Shipley Times & Express on 27 August 1915: “Calverley’s Lieut T P W Rogers was one of the lucky survivors when the troopship Royal Edward sank after being torpedoed in the Aegean Sea. “The death toll was about 1,000 men but Lieut Rogers managed to send his family a cable telling them he was safe and now in Alexandria. “Lieut Rogers was a keen sportsman before the war, playing lacrosse, tennis, billiards and cricket for Calverley second eleven. He was also a strong swimmer which might have been what saved his life.” Two months later the paper reported that its assumption had proved true: “Lieut T P W Rogers of the West

Yorkshire Regt, youngest son of Mr Simeon Rogers of Rose Bank, Calverley, arrived home on Tuesday from the Dardanelles. “Lieut Rogers received his commission in December of last year. “He sailed for the Dardanelles in July on board the Royal Edward which was torpedoed in the Aegean Sea and when about 1200 officers and men perished. “Being an excellent swimmer, Lieut Rogers was able to keep afloat until he was picked up by a small boat after having been in the water for half an hour. “He has come home to recuperate and hopes shortly to be sufficiently recovered to return to his duties.” On 26 October 1917 the newspaper carried a story of an award for

Thomas but with tantalisingly little detail: “Lieut Thomas P W Rogers, attached to the West Yorkshire Regt, who has been awarded the Military Cross, is the son of Mr Simeon Rogers of Rosebank, Calverley, woollen manufacturer, Airedale Mills, Rodley. “At the outbreak of war he was at Leeds University and a member of the O.T.C. He obtained a commission in the K.O.S.B. “He was in the transport King Edward when the vessel was torpedoed on its way to Gallipoli and had a narrow escape from drowning. “He has been mentioned in despatches for his services in France.” We know from the Ancestry records that in January 1922

Thomas married Mabel Isabel Woodhead in Northallerton and at the time of the 1939 survey they were living at Claremont, Church Road, Horsforth with Thomas described as a Worsted Coating Manufacturer. Thomas was still at that address when he died in the Leeds General Infirmary on 27 February 1956, leaving £54,400 3s 10d to his married daughters, Cynthia and Margaret.