205286 2nd Lt. Thomas Richmond Rowell British Army Machine Gun Corps from:Burnley My grandfather, Thomas Richmond Rowell, was in the first attack at Thiepval on the 1st of July 1916, aged 19. He was wounded twice by a german machine gun and spent some hours in no-man's land. Fortunately his mother had given him a bottle of iodine which he poured over his wounds. The surgeon later told him this certainly saved his legs and probably his life. He made a full recovery and died in 1974. This information came from my mother and although true I cannot verify all the facts as he would never speak to me about it, although I do have his picture as an officer in the Lancashire Fusiliers. After the war he joined the colonial civil service in Hong Kong and became Director of Education but was sent on leave shortly before the surrender of Hong Kong and evacuated to Australia. He left there in 1942 in the last rubber boat to leave Malaya before It's surrender. Bound for Britain the ship was torpedoed off Halifax but being full of rubber it took a long time to sink and everyone was picked up. My mother worked as acipher clerk at Bletchley Park. I can follow his life after the war but information on his service record is sketchy. Can anyone help please?
Editors Note: Thomas Richmond Rowell is listed as having served as a Private in the Liverpool Regiment then commissioned into the Machine Gun Corps.
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