Thomas Chandler was born in the Spring of 1892 in Boxmoor near Hemel Hempstead, the ninth child of Alfred Chandler and Susan Fountain. Alfred and Susan had thirteen children and there was over twenty-three years between the oldest and youngest. The children were: Jesse, Frederick, Arthur, Sarah Anne, Alfred, George, Marion, Joseph, Thomas, William Frank, Harry, Sidney and Archibald Bernard.

Three of the children died young, Joseph in 1893 aged three, Harry in 1898 aged four and one other at an unknown date. His older brother Joseph served with the Royal Flying Corps and survived the war. His younger brother Sidney also fought and died in the Great War. He was killed only two months before Thomas in August 1916 and his biography also appears on this site.

Thomas’ father Albert was a ‘Platelayer’ working for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and had brought his family to Boxmoor near Hemel Hempstead in the early 1890’s.

By the time of Thomas’ birth, the family were living at 63 London Road, Boxmoor in the ‘Railway Cottages’. These were homes which stood in front of Boxmoor station (now Hemel Hempstead) and were built to house workers and their families of the LNWR. 

In 1911, eighteen-year-old Thomas was working as a ‘Railway Porter’ for LNWR at Bletchley station. His brothers Arthur and Sidney worked as; ‘Station-Master’ at St. Albans and a ‘Clerk’ at Apsley Paper Mills with John Dickinson & Co. Limited.

On the outbreak of war, Thomas enlisted at Edward Street, Deptford in London joining the 3rd (City of London) Battalion (Royal Fusiliers) in September 1914. It is likely his choice of regiment was because an old volunteer force “The Railway Rifles’ had previously been raised at Euston form employees of the London terminus of the LNWR Company Limited.

The 3rd Londons was a Territorial Force and was initially engaged in guard duties in Malta and London at the outbreak of war. On completion of his training, Thomas was posted to the 2/3rd Londons and went to Malta disembarking on the 19th April 1915 where he remained until the Battalion was sent to Egypt five months later on the 15th September.

After disembarking at Port Said the Battalion was sent to garrison Khartoum in Sudan. Shortly afterwards it entered the Gallipoli Campaign when it landed at Suvla on the 26th September and was attached to the Regulars of 86th Brigade in the 29th Division.

During two months of trench holding the battalion lost approximately half its strength and when a great thunderstorm hit the peninsula on the 26th November, the trenches were flooded and engulfed by snow. The 2/3rd Londons were the worst hit of any unit: fifty men drowned and another thirty were evacuated with frostbite, leaving the battalion with an effective strength of just six officers and fifty other ranks.

Thomas was one of the unfortunate men who suffered frostbite and after some time in hospital on Mudros, he was evacuated back to England in January 1916 to complete his recovery. After seven moths at home he was considered fit enough to re-join his regiment and was posted to the 1/3rd Londons in France, disembarking there on the 25th August 1916.

On the 5th September 1916 the 1/3rd Londons were under the orders of the 168th Brigade in the 56th Division and went back into the line during the Battle of Ginchy where Thomas saw his first action in France. He next saw action when he fought in the Battle of Flers–Courcelette on the 15th September and the Battle of Morval ten days later. He survived each of these actions but was soon in the fray again at the Battle of Le Transloy.

The initial attack proved relatively successful on the 7th October but the following day in a follow-up attack the 1/3rd Londons failed to make any appreciable advance against heavy machine gun fire. The division was relieved the following night and Thomas was one of the forty-seven men posted missing from the attack.

He was subsequently confirmed killed on Sunday, 8th October 1916.

Before his death was officially confirmed, the Hemel Gazette published a plea from his mother Susan, for any information regarding her son’s fate. It appeared two days before Christmas Day in 1916 and speaks to the desperation of a mother who had already lost one son in the conflict. 

Thomas is Remembered with Honour on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, Pier and Face 9D and 16B.

He was 24 years old when he died.

Thomas was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.