The soldier:
Thomas Herbert Mitchell enlisted in Norwich. He joined the 7th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment and was assigned regimental number 29272.
He died of wounds in the 12th General Field Hospital, Rouen, France on the 28th March, 1918.
He is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France. His grave registered as P. VII C9A.
Thomas’s name, date and place of death appears on the headstone of his nephew, Sidney’s grave in St. Mary’s church yard, Snettisham along with that of his brother Henry Layte Mitchell.
The man:
Thomas Herbert Mitchell was born in 1880 in Kings Lynn, Norfolk to Robert and Jane Mitchell (nee Lait).
He was baptised on the 11th July 1883 at All Saints Church, South Lynn.
By 1891 the family had moved the short distance to Snettisham. Thomas (now 11) is shown residing with his parents and his siblings; Lewis (16), Emma (13), Thomas (11), Agnes (7), Elizabeth (5) and Henry (1).
His sister Ellen M is living out of the family home elsewhere in Snettisham as a live-in ‘domestic servant’.
By the 1901 census, Thomas, now 21, lived at the Coach House, Nunthorpe Hall, Yorkshire. His occupation is a ‘groom’.
By the 1911 census, Thomas, now 31, is a single, border lodging at Mrs Jane Ann Blakeborough’s house, 6 Ogleforth, York. He is still employed locally as a ‘groom’.
Thomas’s story is a particularly tragic one as he is one of three Snettisham Mitchell son’s killed in the war; Thomas, Henry Layte and Sidney. All three appear together on the village’s memorials and ‘Roll of Honour’.
