Ashtead War Memorials - WWI - Cadet Thomas
Meredith Allen
Australian Flying Corps
Thomas was one of six brothers born to EF Allen,
Managing Director of The Samoa Shipping and Trading Company, 273
George Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia. He signed up from Apia,
Samoa, Samoa County (having already been a Territorial for 5
years in Auckland, New Zealand,) on 28 November 1914, aged
21years and 1 month, and was enrolled at Liverpool Camp, NSW.
Described as 5 feet 7 inches in height, dark complexioned with
brown eyes and dark brown hair, he had previously worked for two
years as a seaman with the Company run by his father.
As a Private 1313 in 2nd Reinforcements, 2nd
Battalion, AIF, he embarked for the Dardanelles, 11 February
1915, after the Gallipoli landings only to be invalided in action
between 25 and 30 April 1915 with a bullet wound to his left
thigh. Evacuated on HMS Goorkha on 3 May 1915, he was
brought to England, initially for treatment at No.1 Southern
General Hospital, then Harefield Australian Auxiliary Hospital.
He stayed at Woodcote Park, Epsom, from 26 July
to 17 September 1915, and, later, passed through Monte Video, on
the Wyke Regis side of Weymouth, to Perham Downs, Salisbury.
Although made up to T/Corporal, he went AWOL and was reverted to
Private, 23 July 1916, before being returned to his unit in
France on 10 August 1916.
In December 1916 he again became a Lance Corporal
and joined the Royal Flying Corps School of Instruction of
Military Aeronautics at Reading as a cadet (pilot/acting 2nd
Lieutenant). Unfortunately, on 17 April 1917 whilst flying a
Farman aircraft, he crashed at Norwich Aerodrome and died in
Thorpe War Hospital, Norfolk. A Court of Enquiry, convened the
same day, opined that “The accident which resulted in the
death of 2nd Lieut. Allen was entirely due to his error in not
flattening out soon enough.”
Arrangements for his funeral, with Military
Honours, were made by a brother, Lieut. Frederick Allen of HMS Cricket,
using Ashtead’s undertaker at that time, JJ De’Ath.
The choice of location appears to have been
determined by a friendship which had developed, presumably over
the time spent in camp at Epsom, between Thomas and a local
businessman William R Mellish of Woodfield Bakery. The cortege
started from Woodfield House, at 3 pm on 30 April 1917, for a
memorial service at St. Giles followed by interment in the
churchyard. The coffin, of “English Oak with Brass
Mountings”, was draped with the Australian flag, a firing
party was in attendance and four buglers sounded the “Last
Post”. The burial report gives the deceased’s
substantive rank as “Private”.
Since the earlier part of this piece was written,
contact has been made with Stuart Tucker who had
identified and researched the grave in St Giles’ churchyard
before publishing an article in the Ashtead Parish Magazine A
New Zealander at St Giles’. He has explained how he
engaged in correspondence with members of the Allen family: -
“Sylvia Allen, the widow of Frederick
Allen, Tom's eldest brother, who lived in Auckland …
wrote detailing all the points that had puzzled me for so
long.
Tom had been one of six brothers, of whom
four had served in the 1914-18 war. He had been wounded at
Gallipoli but had been posted as being killed. When his
brother, Fred, wounded some time later, was in a Birmingham
hospital, a chance remark by a nurse that another Allen had
been there two weeks earlier made him do some checking. It
was indeed his brother, Tom, and he traced him to a
convalescent home in Ashtead and then got himself transferred
there as well. One of the visitors to this home was 23 year
old Violet Mellish, a daughter of the local baker and the
Mellish household on Ashtead Common became a home-from-home
for both of the Allen boys. Recovering from his wounds, Tom
had then done a brief spell of duty in France before
transferring to the Flying Corps and returning to England
where he also became engaged to Violet Mellish.
His fatal accident had occurred when his
aeroplane had stalled after taking off and striking rough
ground on a practice flight. It had been Violet Mellish's
wish that he be buried at St Giles'. As well as his eldest
brother being there, Tom's youngest brother, Ernest, aged 18
and in the Flying Corps, was also present at the funeral.
Because his flying training had been completed and all
examinations passed for his wings and commission, the family
had felt that the reference to the rank of lieutenant on his
headstone was correct though his death had precluded
completion of the formalities. Tom Allen's grave is but a few
yards from the Mellish family grave though at that time only
one of this large family had been interred there.
Sylvia Allen proved to be the historian of
the family. English herself, she had lived at Stamford in
Lincolnshire and had met Fred Allen whilst he was serving in
the gunboat, H.M.S. Crickett based in the Wash to
protect King George V from the attentions of Zeppelins while
he was at Sandringham. After the war she had married Fred
Allen and went back to New Zealand with him. She had last
heard of Violet Mellish in the late 1920's - she was married
and in Liverpool. I was fortunate to obtain so much
information freely given because Sylvia Allen died a year
later in 1973.
A Mrs. Warland, who though living in Banstead
still attended church services at St Giles, phoned to say
that she used to live near one of Violet Mellish's brothers
and knew his son who lived at Harrow. There were no
descendants of the family now living in Ashtead. Furthermore
she said that Violet Mellish, then 82, lived alone at Malaga
on the southern coast of Spain. Her husband had died in 1973
and her married name was Violet Spowart. I felt that it would
be best for her Harrow nephew to decide whether to send a
copy of the magazine to her. This he did and I then received
some most interesting letters from this elderly lady while
correspondence also commenced between her and Tom's family in
Auckland, both overjoyed to have made contact after a gap of
some fifty years or thereabouts.
Violet Spowart was one of nine children and
the only one of that generation still living. She recalled
clearly the many episodes of her youth - trips by horse-drawn
carriage to dances in Leatherhead, the Mafeking celebrations
of 1900 in Ashtead, the erection of the lych gate at St
Giles' in 1902. She well remembered the Rector of those days,
the Rev. F. G. L. Lucas and his successor, the Rev. Richard
Waddilove, who officiated at Tom's funeral. Every year she
had sent the required sum of money to Longhurst in Epsom so
that the headstone and surround could be cleaned although
this maintenance did not include keeping the area tidy. This
explained why the stone stood out among all the others as
being so clean when I found it in 1970. Also remembered were
the names of the regiments and battalions which a number of
her brothers and other relatives had joined.”
A letter from Violet Spowart related how: -
“On the day [“Tommy”] was
injured, we were to have met in London to celebrate Anzac
day, instead the fatal telegram arrived and immediately my
dear mother and I journeyed to Thorpe, Norwich, to see him.
There was no hope, the brain had been lacerated and he never
regained consciousness. His brother, Fred, joined us at his
bedside and we just sat there and watched Tommy’s
passing. He and I wanted [him] to be buried near our family
grave. It was a military funeral and the Last Post
was sounded. Since, I have cared for the grave as well as
possible, a little difficult as I have lived abroad for the
last 30 years, first in Ireland and for the last 14 years in
Spain – here my husband, Lieut Colonel W Spowart OBE,
died on October 2nd 1973 after a long and very happy married
life. His name though William was Tommy to his
family and to me.”
Violet moved to the Isle of Man and finally to a
residential home in Gloucester where she died, peacefully, on 12
January 1984, a few weeks short of her 91st birthday.
From Errol Martin's book FOR YOUR
TOMORROW, Vol 1: A record of New Zealanders who
have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services
since 1915: via Stuart Tucker
Tue 24 April 1917
Training
9 Reserve Squadron, RFC (Norwich, Norfolk - 7th Wing,
Eastern Group Command, Training Brigade) Henry Farman F20 A1214 -
crashed on failing to flatten out properly during a landing in
the evening, the pilot being thrown out and suffering head
injuries. He died on the morning of the 27th at the Norfolk War
Hospital, Norwich, and was buried at 1500 on the 30th at Ashtead,
Surrey.
Pilot: 1313 Cdt Thomas Meredith ALLEN,
2nd Infantry Bn AIF & Australian Flying Corps Age 23.
2hrs 25min solo on Henry Farman.
Allen was born at Apia in Samoa but spent eight or nine years
in New Zealand to complete his education and gain early work
experience. He returned to the islands a few years prior to
the war to work for his New Zealand father's trading company.
Allen and one of his five brothers arrived in Sydney on board
a company vessel shortly after the outbreak of war, whereupon
both enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force. Thomas, who
had been wounded serving on Gallipoli, later transferred to
the Australian Flying Corps. His tombstone states that he
'died of injuries sustained whilst flying at Norwich, April
26th', while the CWGC register and official records give the
27th as date of death. According to a brother who was at his
side when he died, death occurred 52 hours after the
accident. It would appear therefore that Allen died very
close to midnight 26/27 April.
This is thought to be a photo of Tom Allen's crashed Farman
via Stuart Tucker
Tom Allen and Miss Violet Mellish
via Stuart Tucker
L-R: Stuart Tucker with Tom Allen's nephew Maurice
Allen
at Tom's grave at St Giles' Ashtead, 1976 |
Stuart Tucker with Mrs Violet Spowart
(née Mellish)
21st August 1976
both images via Stuart Tucker |
Links
Roll of Honour, Australian Flying Corps: http://www.camriley.com/2004_2002/rollofhonour.html
National Archives of Australia: Attestation paper: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/imagine.asp?B=3030752&I=1&SE=1
text: Brian Bouchard: if you can add to this page please contact the editor
page added 18 Feb 2009: updated 29 Mar 2009