The Zion Letters: Thomas Percy Taylor - From Clerk to Flying Officer and a tragic death

The Zion letters are a collection of letters from servicemen in the British forces during WW1 to Harold Hill of the Zion Congregational Church Sunday School and Institute on Stretford Road, Hulme. The church was a community hub with 1000 members in the congregation. It provided educational and social activities as well as religous services.

 

Most of the men concerned would appear to have been members of the Institute, though some are clearly work colleagues, though possibly also Zion members.Their letters span the period from early in the war until shortly after its end, though the vast majority date to 1915 and 1916.

 

The letters came to Manchester & Lancashire FHS  in a small suitcase, their provenance was not known by the person who passed them to the society.

 

 

I am researching the lives of some of the men whose letters were found in that suitcase. These letters are a really interesting resource and window into the lives and experiences of "ordinary" men"; there are no famous names or in depth discussions of battles (the censor saw to that!) It is truly amazing how much information can be found on researching them!

 

There is just one letter from Thomas Percy Taylor Jones but it shone a light not only on his military service but also his father 's - he served in the British Army for 22 years! Tragically, I was to discover that Thomas survived the war - and he described how lucky he was - only to die in an accident while flying a plane over England 4 years after the War.

 

The envelope  that contained Thomas' Letter

 

Thomas was born on 20th June 1895 in Pontefract, Yorkshire. His parents were Frank and Florence Adelaide (nee Taylor). Frank was stationed there as he was a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. I discovered that Frank served for over 20 years and much of it was when he was stationed in Barbados! The couple had another son -George Leonard - in 1897 and within a year they were in the West Indies. I think Florence and her sons accompanied Frank - I cannot find them anywhere on the 1911 census. What a place to spend the boys' childhood - slightly warmer and than Manchester! 

 

By 1911 the family were back in Manchester and Thomas was working as a "junior accountant" for the Guardians of the poor in King Street Manchester. 

 

 

The offices of the Guardian of the Poor in Manchester

 

 

He  began his army service in the Territorial army in 1912 and was mobilised in August 1914 at the outbreak of the war. However, he received a very unusual "war" wound - he was kicked by a horse "on the road to Blackburn" and invalided out of the army. The wound was described as being "as the result of ordinary military service" presumably as distinct  from "Wounded in Action" The medical report shows that it was initially quite a serious injury (he received disablity payments until 8th February 1918). It was at this time that he joined the Royal Flying Corp.

Thomas' Letter

 

Thomas' letter -  there was only one in the suitcase- (the letter and full transcript can be seen at the link below) ) was dated 11th December 1918, exactly one month aftter the Armistice. 

 

 

Very interestingly, Thomas refers to the Armistice and he describes the news being met not with huge relief and celebration, but:

 

"No doubt everyone would be in the highest of spirits when news of the Armistic came through. Everything taken into consideration, the boys out here heard the news quite calmdly. There was certainly a fair amount of merrymaking but not so much as one might ordinarily have expected" 

 

This is a really interesting first hand report of how many servicemen greeted the news - no doubt very war weary and perhaps remembering all the men they had seen killed who would not be alive to see the end of the horror. 

 

I have not found a lot of information about Thomas' time in the RFC/RAF BUT I did find a fascinating piece of information - Thomas was awarded a medal for gallantry - from the Russian Government! It was an Order of St Stanslaus, II class cross and swords. I cannot find anything on his records but this proves that Thomas was engaged in action in Russia, after the Armistice in Europe! I have not been able to find much information but this is a really wonderful discovery!

 

 Medal card 

 

The rest of the letter discusses news from the Home Front, including concern about the flu epidemic and the coming, post war election

 

 "Yes! I suppose the coming election is causing lots of excitement."

 

Thomas also describes how he and his pilot (Thomas was an observer) had many scares:

 

Of course, right up to the last might the fighting went on hotly. Less than 24 hours before the cessation my and I had some very narrow "shaves" 

This is so touching: I discovered that only four years later he would die in a plane crash in peacetime.

 

After the War and Tragedy

 

Thomas remained in the RAF after his sortie in Russia. In 1921 he is based at Shotwick Aerodrome Cheshire and is a Flying Officer (Training). In 1923 he married Florence Lilian Dixon who, according to the 1921 census, was a lady's companion (sadly "out of work"). I think she was a distant cousin as I have seen the surname while researching Thomas' mother. After marrying  in Salford in 1923, tragedy struck just a year later. on searching the newspaper archives I discovered that Thomas died in a flying accident in May 1924. There was some discussion on whether the plane was airworthy and another Flying Officer seems to say that Thomas might have contributed to the accident. However, the Coroner observed that no blame could be attached to anyone.

 

 

Report of the fatal accident

Thomas came through the war years, surviving many "close shaves" and considering himself "a very fortunate individual indeed to have come out of it all safely". He served in Russia, and was awarded a medal for gallantry only to die in peacetime within four years of the end of hostilities. I have been unable to trace what happened to his wife, Florence. She may have remarried and so I would not be able to trace her under a different surname.

 

Thomas' letter has allowed me an insight into the thoughts of a serviceman about the end of the war, his sympathy for those suffering in the flu epidemic and his horribly ironic optimism aftrer surviving the war - only to die after it before the age of 30. It has been a privilege and a very rewarding "journey" to trace his life from a clerk in Manchester to Russia via France. A short life, well lived.

 

Thank you for your service Thomas. 

Images courtesy of  Manchester & Lancashire FHS 

copyright on  images of letters and Zion Chapel  are "Copyright: Trustees of Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society".

 

  

https://mlfhs.uk/zion/letters/servicemen-h-l/2297-jones-thomas-percy-taylor/file 

https://uk.forceswarrecords.com/image/722180757/jones-thomas-percy-taylor-page-1-uk-wwi-royal-flying-corps-and-successors-gallantry-award-medal-index

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The Zion Archive: Letters from Gallipoli

As an historian of WW1 it is always a delight to find a primary source that I had not come across before so it was with some eagerness that I visited the Zion Letters website. This website shares a collection of letters received by Harold Hill, a Sunday school teacher at the Zion Congregational Church in Manchester, from servicemen in the congregation during WW1. The link to the website is below and I can really recommend browsing the contents. I have visited 100s of sites relating to WW1 and I think this archive is really important. A brief glance has proved to show how the letters demonstrate how the men felt about the war, their  experiences and the conditions they lived under. In fact as an example, the very first letters I read describe how a soldier survived the sinking of a troop ship on its way to Gallipoli - and how the men were put straight back on another ship to continue their voyage to the peninisular and how angry they were that all the officers were returned to Blightly and remained there! Herbert Bryden was not impressed! Here is his story.

 

The Zion Congregational Church and Institute on Stretford Road was funded by Enriqueta Rylands, the widow of John Rylands, andopened in 1911. It was the centre for a wide variety of member activities such as Sunday schools, social gatherings and a Boys' Brigade troop.

 Herbert was born on 6th January 1890 the youngest of 9 children born to James and Catherine Bryden. James was born in Birkenhead but after his marriage he moved to Hulme in Manchester The 1891 and 1901 census returns demonstrates what an important source of employment the textile industry was in Manchester at that time. At least five of the family were involved in the industry, shown by their occupations; Stitcher, errand girl, hooker (grey cloth) and maker up. Herbert worked in the Tolson and Chisnall Mill and it seems likely that the other family members did too (he was described as a "maker up" as was his father James.)

This mill is mentioned in the Graces Guide to British Industry of 1914. I discovered that one of the partners in the mill was killed in the war.

 

Entry for the mill in The Graces Guide 1914

 

Herbert volunteered in the Army in November 1914 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corp. This was some time before conscription.  The Field Ambulance was a mobile front line medical unit (it was not a vehicle), manned by troops of the Royal Army Medical Corps.For more detailed information on their role, see the link below.

 

 Members of the RAMC Field Ambulance in WW1

 

Herbert's service record is quite complicated, but we can see that he served on at least two battlefronts abroad - with the BEF in France and in the ill fated Gallipoli campaign. One of Herbert's letters recounts how he was on board the HMT King Edward on its way to Gallipoli from England when it was torpedoed by German submarine UB-14 on 13 August 1915, sinking from the stern in just 6 minutes. Figures vary, with at least 864 lives known to have been lost, and at least 661 rescued. 

 

 

HMT King Edward at Alexandria, en route to Gallipoli

 

There is an incredible amount of information online about the sinking  ( Herbert's brother Robert was also on board and was also rescued). Significant RAMC fatalities were incurred in the East Lancashire Field Ambulance which lost 61 officers and men.

 

 

An Admiralty casualty list, published in The Times in September 1915, named 13 officers and 851 troops as missing believed drowned, a total of 864 lost,It was while reading one of Herbert's letters to Harold Hill that I discovered he had been one of the men rescued, but also, the anxiety and distress it had caused him. A full transcription of his account can be found on the |Zion Archive site but I will reproduce part of his account below:

 

Well Mr Hill I don’t wish to state anything regarding the wreck and our experiences. I think the least said of it at present the better for it saves a lot of after thought and I am trying mybest to forget it. You will quite understand my idea Mr Hill for when I realise I am in the land of the living after such a terrible experience, my mind goes a complete blank. I haven’t much to say this time I would willingly write you a line or two of the work out here in the Dardanelles but you know I am not allowed. 

 

It is clear, from our knowledge now, over 100 years later, that Herbert is suffering from PTSD. In his next letter dated three months after the sinking, in December 1916, he gives more details and says that "my nerves are not right by a long way" . He was picked up by the hospital ship "Soudan". Very indignantly (and rightly so!) he states that the men were sent back to Gallipoli within three days (and which he thinks contributes to his "nerves") but the officers were allowed to remain (I don't know if they had landed somewhere and been put on another ship or if the officers had been landed but remained). Apparently though, the officers were jeered by the men as they remained! 

 

 

 Survivors of HMT Royal Edward boarding Soudan

credit:

By Ndovu09 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73070351

 

 In spite of being rescued, Herbert did not escape the War unscathed. He suffered a gun shot wound to his right thigh in 1916, when he had to have an operation to remove a bullet lodged in his leg and the records also show he was gassed. He served in Egypt, France and Gallipoli and returned to "blighty" on several occasions. He was a patient at the Scottish General Hospital, Stobill,  in January 1916, presumably following his GSW. 

 

  

 Stobhill Hospital (also known as Springburn)

 

I noticed from his records that Herbert was granted 11 days leave in October 1917 and I was very pleased to find out that it was for a very good reason; he married Sarah Wilkinson at the Zion Church, where he sent his letters toHarold Hill.  I was even more happy to discover that Herbert survived the War. In 1921 he wss back working in his old job at Tolson and Chisnall.  Intriguingly, he was as "attendant at an art galley" in 1939. I wonder if it was the City Art Gallery in Manchest city centre.  Even more happily, I discovered a newspaper announcement in 1942  celebrating his and Sarah's silver wedding. They had at least one daughter, Catherine who was born in January 1919. Herbert died in 1983 at the age of 92!

 

 

I was delighted to be able to trace Herbert's story from the letters he wrote back to Harold Hill. This is a very small collection within the vast  Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society and I am very glad that I discovered it! Herbert's two letters have been transcribed and are an excllent and entertaining  primary source; his writing style is very accessible and often witty (he complains that he is now much more adept at carrying stretcher poles than a billiard cue! Well worth a 10 minute read!.

 

Herbert's story and particularly his terrible experience in the War have been rescued and, happily we can discover that, he managed to survive, marry and have a family.  I hope he enjoyed his last job in an art gallery! He deserved it.

 

 

https://mlfhs.uk/zion/letters

 

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im1914WWB-p938a.jpg 

 

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/field-ambulances-in-the-first-world-war/ 

 

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/field-ambulances-in-the-first-world-war/

 

https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/2025/january/friday-the-13th-in-the-13th-month-of-the-war-the-sinking-of-the-royal-edward/ 

 

https://www.glasgowworld.com/news/glasgows-great-war-14-old-pictures-of-glasgow-during-the-first-world-war-4690467 

 

https://www.friendsofmillbank.org/downloads/the%20RAMC%20in%201914.pdf

 

https://emptageofthanet.co.uk/military-and-maritime-service/military/ww1-military-biographies/