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 17800 9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
Thomas Stammers was born in Sudbury on 5 June 1890. He was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Stammers (née Tuffin). Elizabeth was Joseph’s second wife. His father had a hardware and paint store at 27 North Street and a warehouse in Girling Street. The family lived ‘over the shop’ in North Street. The business also had a horse and wagon, which Thomas drove, selling their wares around the countryside.
Thomas was aged 8 when his mother died and his father married his third wife Emily Smith from Assington and Thomas soon had a half-brother William and a half-sister Phoebe.
Thomas married May Eugenia Rice from Assington on 1 August 1909. They had three children: Dorothy Elizabeth, Muriel Winifred and Edward Thomas. May was a schoolteacher and the family lived at one time at the School House in Assington and at Verona Villas, Suffolk Road in Sudbury.
Thomas enlisted and served with the Royal Fusiliers, he first served in France on 29 December 1915. The battalion formed part of 36th Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division. In the summer of 1916 they saw action in the opening phases of the Battle of the Somme at the Battle of Albert (1 – 13 July). The regimental history records that on 7 July 1916 the battalion was engaged in the attempt to capture Ovillers, the action is described as ‘few more costly actions were fought in the whole battle of the Somme’. The battalion had gone into action 800 strong; they could only muster 160 that night.
Thomas was killed in action aged 26 near Ovillers on 7 July 1916. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at the Thiepval Memorial in April 2006 and April 2009.
Thomas is also remembered on the Trinity Congregational Church Memorial which was moved to the United Reformed Church, School Street when Trinity closed. The United Reformed Church closed in 2017 and it is proposed that the memorials from both churches will be relocated to the Sudbury Cemetery Chapel.
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