Gnr Thomas William Linnett

Thomas was born in Little Clacton in Essex, the son of an agricultural labourer - a job that he himself did as a boy after he left school. Presumably this was not the life he wanted, since in June 1891 at the age of 18 and a half he signed up to join the army, signing on for the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner.

In 1894 he was promoted from Gunner to Bombardier, in May 1896 to Corporal (before being sent to Malta) and in October 1896 to Sergeant (before being sent to Gibraltar). Something strange happened, though in summer 1897 - he was demoted to Corporal again. And in 1898 things got worse, he was 'tried by R.S.M.' and demoted all the way back to Gunner - although there are no records of what had happened to cause him to be so harshly punished.

The army took him to South Africa during the Boer War, where he was part of the 40th Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery. He remained in the army in 1907 when he decided to leave the regular army and join the reserves.

Meanwhile, he married a woman called Alice Elizabeth and moved to 30 Wellesley Road in Brentwood.

He was recalled to the army at the start of the first world war in 1914 and served with the Royal Garrison Artillery until 1916, when he was no longer able to serve and discharged through disability - this probably just meant that at age 42 the heavy work of an artilleryman was too much for him.

He returned to Brentwood, where he died in 1923.