LLANDUDNO’S FORGOTTENHEROESPrivate Thomas John Hughes

Killed in action on 28 October 1916

Thomas John Hughes’ father was John Hughes, a joiner. John Hughes’ first wife, Elizabeth, with whom he had had at least two children, Margaret and William, had died circa 1875. John Hughes’ second wife was Ann Jones and he married her in 1882 in Llandudno. Thom-as John Hughes was born on 23 March 1883. The family’s address was “Hayley Cottage” when Thomas was recorded in the register of St. George’s National School in 1890. “Hay-ley Cottage” was on Old Road at the rear of “Hayley House”. Ann Hughes died in 1893 and John Hughes died on in 1900. In 1901, Thomas Hughes was a joiner; he was a boarder at the adjacent “Vine Cottage”.

Thomas Hughes married Harlech-born Eliza-beth Williams, a domestic servant of “Warren View”, Caroline Street, Llandudno, at Conway Registry Office on 28 September 1901. Both parties gave their ages as 21 though Thom-as was still only 18. The marriage must have ended tragically because the next record of Thomas Hughes to be discovered is the Cen-sus for 1911 where he is described as a wid-ower. It is recorded that he was a coal miner, aged 28, and boarding at Porth, Glamorgan-shire.

Thomas Hughes enlisted at Wrexham into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in September 1914 and was posted to the 11th (Service) Battalion which was forming at the time. His regimen-tal number was 14881. The battalion moved south and eventually ended up at Aldershot in June 1915. It landed in France on 5 September 1915 but at the end of the following month it embarked at Marseilles for Salonika, arriv-ing there in November 1915. The records of No 66 Field Ambulance record that Thomas

Hughes was admitted for two days suffering from enteritis.

Despite having the additional sentiment “BACHGEN O LLANDUDNO” on his grave marker at Karasouli Military Cemetery in Greece, Thomas John Hughes, who was killed in action in October 1916, is neither named on the Llan-dudno War Memorial nor named in Holy Trinity Church.

Thomas John Hughes was killed in action on 28 October 1916. Soldiers Died in the Great War says that Thomas Hughes was killed in Serbia and a memorial stone in St. Tudno’s Churchyard says “Macedonia”. Both are cor-rect because Macedonia was then part of Ser-bia. He was buried at Karasouli Military Cem-etery, Polykastro, Greece which is about 15 km south of the present Greek/Former Yugo-slav Republic of Macedonian border. Only one other soldier from the battalion was killed

that day and he too was buried at the same cemetery. Whilst this second soldier’s record still exists, the only legible cause and place was “due to hostile action in the field.”

The effects’ register states that Thomas’ ef-fects were received by his step-brother Wil-liam, the last payment being made in No-vember 1919. So why William did not submit Thomas’ name for inclusion on the Llandudno War Memorial is unknown.