Thomas Waller was born in Apsley, Hertfordshire on 8th March 1889 and baptised the following month on 21st April at St Mary’s Church in Apsley End. He was the third child born to Henry Waller and Mary Ann Humphreys who had four children together. These were: Isobel, William, Thomas and Bertie. The family lived on Two Waters Road opposite the old mill for many years until moving to Apsley around 1908 and Thomas, his two brothers and his father were all employees of John Dickinson & Co Limited at some time.

Thomas enlisted under the Group or ‘Derby’ Scheme and attested in Hemel Hempstead in December 1915 where he joined the Hertfordshire Regiment. He went to Bury St Edmunds to undergo basic training before being sent to France in 1916. Before he departed for the Front however, Thomas was granted some home leave and returned to Hemel Hempstead to marry his sweetheart Mabel Edith Allum whom he had met whilst working in Dickinsons where she was an ‘Envelope Maker’. The young couple married in Marlowes Baptist Church on Saturday, 26th February 1916 and a detailed report of the event appeared in the following week’s Hemel Gazette. After a few precious days together, Thomas returned to his Regiment and continued training.

It is not clear when Thomas went to France but it was probably no earlier than June of 1916. When he did go overseas he was posted to the 11th Battalion Essex Regiment as this unit was in much need of reinforcements. It is likely that he fought in the Battle of Hill 70 in late August 1916 and also participated in the Cambrai Operations in November and December of that year. By the following March the 11th Essex fought in the Second Battle of the Somme at St Quentin.

Finally, in June Thomas was with his unit at Mazingarbe south of St Omer and it was here that he died. It is not clear how he met his end, as the Battalion war diary records that the Battalion was in training. There were a significant number of cases of enteritis which hospitalised a large proportion of the men at this time. The diaries do not record casualties on specific dates, but towards the end of June as it was clearing camp ready to move, the unit came under indiscriminate shell fire which resulted in a number of killed and wounded.

Thomas fell on Thursday 28th June 1917 probably killed by an enemy shell.

His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette about three weeks after he was killed. It poignantly records his last words before he died.

Thomas was commemorated in St Mary’s where he was baptised and in Marlowes Baptist Church where he was married.

Thomas is Remembered with Honour in Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, Pas-de-Calais, France where he is interred in Grave I.S.33. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Mabel reads: “UNTIL THE DAY BREAK & THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY”, a line taken from “The Bride’s Admiration”, Song of Solomon 2:17.

He was 28 years old when he died.

Thomas was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.