Thomas William Marsh was born in Garlinge, Kent, England, in 1886, the only son, and the youngest of five children, of Thomas Edward and Louisa Marsh (née Stockbridge) who, in 1915, lived at 2, Mabel Terrace, Richborough Road, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent. His father was an agricultural labourer.
Thomas started his working life as an errand boy, and then became an engine driver, as did his father by that time. On the 6th April 1912, he married Annie Sophia Wright and they had, like his parents, lived in Westgate-on-Sea.
Sometime before the Great War, Thomas Marsh had worked for a Mr. G.K. Burge of nearby Garlinge, but in April 1913, he and his wife had immigrated to Canada, and settled in Toronto, Ontario, where a son, also named Thomas, was born to them in
November of that year. While in Canada, Thomas Marsh had qualified as an engineer.
Late in 1913, Annie Marsh found employment in Millicrest Street, Toronto, as a housekeeper to the Hook family, which consisted of father George and two young children Elsie and Frank. George Hook’s wife had died in the autumn of that year and Annie Marsh was engaged as a result, although at that time she must have been pregnant with Thomas. George Hook had also originally come from England.
By the spring of 1915, George Hook had decided that he could earn his living just as easily back in his native land, and deciding to return to England, he sold up in Toronto, intending to sail, with his two children, on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool. This would obviously have left Annie Marsh without a job and so the Marsh family also decided to return home on the Cunarder. As Thomas Marsh had already bought third class tickets, George Hook decided to do the same, so that they could all travel together. With his recently obtained engineering degree, Thomas intended to enlist and get a commission in the British Army.
Having travelled from Toronto to New York, the party of six boarded the liner at her berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing, which was postponed until just after noon, as she had to embark crew, passengers and cargo from Anchor Lines ship the S.S. Cameronia, which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for service as a troop ship.
After a fairly uneventful journey, the Marsh family was shattered for ever on the afternoon of 7th May 1915, when the German submarine U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania within sight of the coast of southern Ireland. Although Annie Marsh survived this action, both her husband and son perished as a result.
Having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, Annie Marsh arrived at the home of her husband’s parents on Sunday 9th May and sometime after that gave an account of her survival to a representative of local newspaper The East Kent Times, in which she stated: -
We came from Toronto to New York and took a berth on the Lusitania, which was sailing on the morning of May 1st, I, my husband and eighteen months’ old baby. I was sitting sewing after I had dressed my baby, when I heard the explosion. Rushing to the steps I saw my husband who took me to the second-class deck. I remained there with my husband as long as I possibly could, and tied the baby around me.
I took to the water as the vessel was sinking fast. Within a few minutes the baby got loose and I lost him.
After being in the water for over half an hour and only being kept afloat by holding on to two large pieces of wood, I heard a man call out “Come on lady.” One of the stewards of the vessel was in the boat and he assisted me into it.
She also stated that the night before the sinking, her husband had had a dream that the vessel had been torpedoed! Perhaps Thomas Marsh should have paid more heed to his dream!
His body was recovered from the sea, however, and having been landed at Queenstown, it was taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there, where it was given the reference number 80 and described as: -
35 years, clean shaven, 5ft. 6 in. grey clothes, dark hair.
Having been positively identified, however, on 10th May 1915, it was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, two miles north of the town in Mass Grave C, 2nd Row, Upper Tier, where it lies to this day. It was on this day that the bodies of most of the dead recovered from the sea were buried after a long funeral procession which began outside the Cunard office at Lynch’s Quay, on the waterfront. Thomas Marsh was actually aged 29 years at the time of his death. The body of his eighteen month old baby son was never recovered and identified.
Thomas Marsh senior is also commemorated on a large bronze tablet set into an oak surround in St. Saviour’s Church in Westgate-on-Sea. The oak surround is decorated with grapes and vines and is flanked by two warrior saints and the tablet commemorates 78 men from the parish who lost their lives in the Great War. As a civilian, Thomas Marsh’s name is next to last. The tablet is surmounted by the embossed inscription: -
TO THE GLORY OF GOD & IN MEMORY OF THE MEN
FROM THE PARISH OF WESTGATE ON SEA
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR
KING AND COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918.
Underneath the tablet, carved into the oak surround, is incised: -
MAKE THEM TO BE NUMBERED
WITH THY SAINTS IN GLORY EVERLASTING
The memorial was unveiled by the Bishop of Croydon in July 1920.
His name is also included on a stone war memorial erected by the British Legion at Westgate-on-Sea, and unveiled on 4th August 1923 - the ninth anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War. It bears the names of 79 local men who lost their lives as a result of the conflict under the title: -
BRITISH LEGION MEMORIAL
“LEST WE FORGET”
1914 - 1918
The official municipal memorial was actually a recreation ground, but members of the Legion decided that a more personal memorial was needed to commemorate those lost more adequately. Thomas William Marsh’s name is erroneously shown as MARSH T H., however!
On 9th June 1915 property recovered from her husband’s body, which was identified by George Hook and probably aided its identification, was sent to Annie Marsh at her in-laws Mabel Terrace address. It consisted of two watches, one of a lady and one of a gent, two silver chains, a knife, a pipe, some papers, some keys and a few British copper coins.
Like Annie Marsh, all three members of the Hook family survived the sinking.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Ontario Canada Births 1832 – 1914, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Cork Examiner, East Kent Times, Isle of Thanet Gazette, Seven Days to Disaster, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/319, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, James Brazier, Susan Brazier, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.