PRIVATE THOMAS MANUEL
HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY
29TH APRIL 1916 AGE 22
BURIED: NOEUX-LES-MINES COMMUNAL CEMETERY, FRANCE
Mrs Catherine Manuel was a widow and Thomas was her youngest child. The family came from Linlithgow, where father James was a mason, but at the time of Thomas's death his mother was living in Brandon Place, Palace Colliery, Bothwell, Glasgow. Thomas described himself as a colliery worker when he enlisted on 15 September 1914 but he is not listed on the Bothwell war memorial.
Thomas Manuel served with the 2nd Battalion Highland Light Infantry and went with them to France in May 1915. However, he was not with them when he was killed. According to the report of his death in the Hamilton Advertiser of Saturday 13 May 1916, Manuel had been attached to the Royal Engineers as an officer's servant. His medal roll indicates that this was the 173rd Tunnelling Company, which was engaged in countering enemy mining initiatives in the region of Loos en Gohelle, waging 'main', 'deep' and 'deep deep' underground warfare, sometimes to a depth of 40 metres. The newspaper does not record how his death occurred.