PRIVATE THOMAS PAULL: 3/8394
1st. Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment.
Thomas was born at Leigh, near Sherborne, in1876, to John and Ann Paull. He had one brother -Charles who died aged just one in January 1979 and his mother died a month later.
In 1880, his father remarried. His wife was Phoebe Hounsell and they had five more children.
In 1903 Thomas married Alice Mary Ackerman. At the time of the marriage, Thomas had been living in Bournemouth but with his new wife (a Bridport girl), set up a family home at 12 St. Michaels Lane. Their three children Edward, Elizabeth and William were born here. Thomas worked as a ‘Corporation’ labourer and Alice was engaged in domestic work.
Before his marriage, Thomas had served time with the Dorsetshire Regiment and the Royal Field Artillery and so when war was declared in 1914, he was re-called to service as part of the Army Reserve. He was 35.
After passing his medical he was appointed to the Dorset Special Reserve and was posted on active service, joining the 1st. Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment on October 23rd, 1914. Thomas was one of the men sent to reinforce the battalion after the heavy losses suffered at the battle at Pont Fixe.
Thomas spent the winter on the Ypres Salient, but March 10th 1915 was hospitalised with what was diagnosed as a congenital heart disease. He was treated at Boulogne and Rouen and returned to his Regiment two weeks later.
On May 1st the Dorsets were in action in the southern section of the salient near Hill 60 when the Germans unleashed an attack using chlorine gas which caused heavy casualties, including 150 men killed.
Thomas was one of the victims of this attack and died as a result of the poisoning, on May 3rd. 1915.
He is buried at Perth Cemetery (China Wall), West Vlaanderen Belgium.
Images: By kind permission of Monica Hammond, Granddaughter