224911 Pte. Thomas Purvis British Army 13th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment from:County Durham I've been undertaking a spot of research on my Great Granddad, Thomas Purvis, who fought during WW1 with the 13th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment; and I stumbled upon this website so thought I'd provide some information to help you piece together the men who fought in the regiment.
Thomas and my family are from County Durham, and the family, including Thomas, were coal miners. His mother and father were from Yorkshire, and he married a lady, Lydia Johns, of Cornish stock. Thomas lived all of his life in the East Durham coalfields.
He enlisted at Sunderland on the 22nd March 1915. I believe his mother bore witness to his enlistment, as opposed to his wife, which may suggest Lydia wasn't too happy with him joining up! He was 36 years and 9 months when he enlisted, making him born 1878/1879, which I would have thought was quite old for an enlisting soldier at the time.
He survived the war, which is useful otherwise I wouldn't be here! He was certainly wounded in the leg and used a walking stick for the rest of his life upon discharge which was in 1919. Family tradition has it that he was wounded on The Somme, but I am yet to verify that.
After the war, Thomas returned to his pre-war occupation of coal miner and had more children. He had 6 children in total: 3 daughters and 3 sons; with my Granddad (Thomas's son) born in the year of his enlistment in 1915.
Thomas died in 1941 but from what I can gather from family stories, Thomas was a bad tempered man, but that said I think fighting in such conditions would have tested the patience of a saint and left a mark on most people. Unfortunately, I don't know a great deal more about Thomas as a person because my mother (Thomas's granddaughter) was born in 1940 so didn't know Thomas and her dad (Thomas's son) didn't pass much information down to the family.
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