Thomas Connor
2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment)
Thomas Connor lived at 7 Cliff Road, Harden, in 1911 with his widowed mother Mary, brothers Frank (aged 29) and John (aged 18), sisters Elizabeth (aged 23), Mary (aged 20) and Ellen (aged 14) and a boarder, John Kenny (19). Born in 1895, Thomas was aged 16 at the time of the census, and employed at the spring works in Harden.
Thomas was a member of the Bingley Territorials and was called up at the outbreak of the war in 1914. He became Private T Connor, 307701, in the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), and first went to France in April 1915. Thomas was killed in action on August 31st 1918.
Thomas is commemorated at Vis-En-Artois British Cemetery, Haucourt, France
Medals: British War Medal & British Victory Medal.
Vis-En-Artois Memorial
Vis-En-Artois and Haucourt were taken by the Canadian Corps on 27 August 1918. The cemetery was begun immediately afterwards and was used by fighting units and field ambulances until the middle of October. It consisted originally of 430 graves but was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of April-June 1917, August and September 1918, and from the smaller cemeteries in the neighbourhood.
The cemetery now contains 2,369 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,458 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them.
Read more about the cemetery on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website.
Vis-En-Artois Memorial
Keighley News Listing
Thomas Connor’s photograph appears on page 3 of the Keighley News from 21st September 1918, under ‘Local Heroes of the War’. Report is on same page under ‘Local War Casualties – Bingley and District’.
Download full Newspaper 21st September 1918 (PDF, 9 Mb)
With thanks to NewsQuest Media Group and the Keighley News.
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