Thomas Cripps was born in Boxmoor on Wednesday, 15th November 1899 the youngest son of George Cripps and Catherine Sibley. He had nine siblings, although only seven are known; Emily, Annie (both half-sisters) followed by George, Frederick, Jane, Will and Lily. The Cripps family lived at 9 Fishery Cottages in Boxmoor for many years and all the children were raised there in a small five room house.

His brother George fought and survived the Great War only to die in an accident 1n June 1919 whilst serving in India with the Royal Engineers.

Thomas started school in 1904 at Boxmoor JMI and left on his thirteenth birthday, the 15th November 1912, to start work in the Book Binding Department at Apsley Mills with John Dickinson & Co. Ltd.

When war broke out Thomas was still only fourteen and still too young to join the services. However, two months after his fifteenth birthday on the 23rd January 1915, he enlisted as a Boy 2nd Class in the Royal Navy and was posted to ‘HMS Vivid’, a shore establishment at Devonport, to begin his naval training. His entry was conditional on his physical height, weight and medical fitness and evidence of being of 'good character'. Additionally, Thomas’ parents would have signed a declaration that he would serve in the Navy for a minimum period. Thomas had signed up for twelve years.

He was promoted to Boy 1st Class on the 12th November 1916 and moved to ‘HMS Victory’ at Portsmouth Dockyard to continue his training, but not yet at sea. Finally, on 28th January 1916 he joined the brand-new ‘HMS Malaya’, a Queen Elizabeth Class battleship launched in March 1915 and commissioned of 1st February 1916.

Thomas’ first few months on board consisted of routine patrols until on the 31st May 1916, HMS Malaya took part in The Battle of Jutland. Fought off the coast of Denmark over two days, Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the Great War. Fourteen British and eleven German ships sank, with great loss of life. Both sides claimed victory and although the Royal Navy lost more ships and twice as many sailors it succeeded in containing the German fleet.

HMS Malaya was hit eight times during the battle and she took major damage and heavy crew casualties with a total of 65 men killed or wounded in the action. Young Thomas Cripps was Killed in Action on the first day, Wednesday, 31st May 1916.

His body was taken to the Orkney Islands where he was buried on the 6th June 1916, a fact reported in the Hemel Gazette later in the same month. 

He is commemorated on the Dickinson & Co. Ltd. War Memorial in Apsley.

Thomas is Remembered with Honour in the, Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery, Orkney, United Kingdom where he is interred in Grave B.33.

He was only 16 years old when he died.

Thomas was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal