Noel Lavender Thomas

In memoriam

Noel Alexander Thomas was the Sergeant Major of the 19th Foot being commissioned from the ranks to the 63rd Foot, and died at Solon, India in 1879 2nd Lieutenant Noel Lavender Thomas was born on 10/12/1895 in Newport, Wales. On the outbreak of the First World War, he was working as a bank clerk when he enlisted on 9/10/1914 into the 13th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers with the Service #16252. Promoted to Corporal in March 1915 he reverted at his own request in August and landed in France with the battalion on 1/12/1915, as part of the 113th Brigade, 38th (Welsh) Division. He was wounded in action on 19/2/1916 receiving a gunshot wound to his left arm. At the time the battalion was in the line at Givenchy and 3 men were wounded from German rifle grenades. On discharging from hospital, he was posted to the 38th Infantry Base Depot (I.B.D.) being medically downgraded. Posted to the 2nd Entrenching Battalion for 2 weeks in April 1916 and back to the 13th R.W.F. 28/4/1916. He successfully applied for a commission and was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant on 28/11/1917. Posted to the 1st Battalion R.W.F. but seconded to the 11th Battalion R.W.F. he departed England in July 1918 landing at Salonika on 24/6/1918 marching into the battalion ('D' Company) two days later. Detached for instruction he joined the battalion proper on 2 August he was killed in action within 2 months. The tragedy of the 3rd Battle of Doiran is well documented in the book Under the Devil's Eye. In a nutshell the British attacked a mountainous well-fortified Bulgarian position in the same place that they had been repulsed twice previously in 1917. On 18 September, the attacked with the 66th and 67th Brigades of the 22nd Division and the Greek Serres Division. The Bulgarian first line of trenches was overrun. The Bulgarians counterattacks recaptured the ground lost. Initially reported as missing he was later confirmed as killed on the 18th. An extract from a letter written to his brother by one of his comrade's states "I have been on Brigade H.Q. for some weeks so was not actually in the show but saw all the boys a few hours before zero. Early on the morning of the 18th I intercepted a note coming in by a wounded man saying that Harris, Parker and your brother were together and wounded. Before the stretcher bearers got there, Parker walked in, afterwards Harris died of wounds, but your brother could not be found. The ground was searched many times then and since, but nothing has been found.' His body was recovered, and he is interred in the Doiran Military Cemetery. His brother 2nd Lieutenant Cyril Raymond Thomas was also killed in WW1.

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