Petty Officer 217552 Thomas Albert Leigh of HMS Alert was born at Tonbridge on the 8th of July 1885, the son of Thomas Leigh and his first wife Eleanor Waterman, who died at Dartford in 1897. Thomas was not found on either the 1891 or 1901 census and was in the Navy for that of 1911.

However, to take the 1911 census, his family were then at Pleasant View, Barden Road, Speldhurst. Thomas (senior), aged 51, was a builders foreman born in the Tonbridge district. His new wife, Edith, aged 41, was born at Littlehampton. The couple have been married for thirteen years and have produced four children all still alive. Children recorded are Frank, aged 10, born Speldhurst, Carrie, aged 9, born Folkestone, Audrey, aged 6, born Sheerness and Ivy, aged 5, born at Maidstone.

He was educated at Tonbridge and joined the Royal Navy as a “Boy” in October 1901. He signed up for twelve years service on the 8th of July, 1903. He was promoted to Boy 2nd Class from the 1st of October 1904 to the 8th of February 1906 when he was made Boy 1st Class whilst still on St Vincent.

The 1911 census records Thomas as an Able Bodied seaman on HMS Stork at Portsmouth. On the 22nd of March 1912 he was passed as fit for Petty Officer. He was employed in the Navy as a Baker, reaching the rank of 1st Class Petty Officer.

He saw service during the war in East Indian waters and in Mesopotamia on HMS Alert on which ship he was serving when he died of paratyphoid on the 24th of September 1916 at the British General Hospital Tanooma, Basra.

The ships log for HMS Dalhousie, a Royal Indian Marine Troopship, for the 24th records the ship at Basra and that at 5.pm a funeral party was landed “to attend funeral of the late Petty Officer Leigh”; the party returned at 6pm.

Interestingly, his next of kin to be informed of his death was his grandmother, Eliza Waterman, Kings Lane, Collier St, Marden, Kent.

He is remembered in Basra War Cemetery on the Tanooma Memorial with Private 3657 W Barwell of the 1/6 Devons who died on the 24th of December 1916.

The memorial originally had, or possibly was to have, the inscription “To the memory of these to men of the British forces who fell in 1916 and were buried at the time in Tanooma Cemetery but graves are now lost”. .”Their glory shall not be blotted out”. The graves register has the inscription crossed out and below, handwritten note that “Five casualties, including the two above and also Garret W buried at Shaifa, Newson AJ buried at Muharraq (looks like ?) and West H buried at Muharraq (looks like?) are commemorated not by Kipling Memorial but on the screen wall”.

Thomas Leigh is remembered at Speldhurst on the grave of Ivy Leigh, died the 7th of May, 1918, aged 12. Also Thomas (senior), died 26th of March, 1920, aged 60. He is also remembered on the village War Memorial, as Albert Thomas Leigh.

The Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser for the 7th of May 1920, reports on the dedication of the Speldhurst War Memorial by the Bishop of Rochester; the Roll of Honour refers to him as Albert Thomas Leigh.

[To add to the anomalies concerning Thomas, some records state that Thomas was killed in action, and others that he died as a prisoner of the Turks.]