Thomas Ryan

Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial 1914-1918 | Index

Thomas (Tom) Ryan was born on 3 November 1879 in Limerick City, Ireland, the son of Thomas Ryan senior and Catherine (Kate) Connelly who were married on 29 February 1876 at Kilteely, County Limerick. Tom had an elder brother Timothy (Tim) who was born on 5 February 1877 at Kildromin, County Limerick and baptised at Kilteely the following day. We have no further information about Tom's father or whether there were other siblings.

Census information is very limited for Ireland before 1901 and by that time Tom had left home to join the Royal Scots Regiment on a 12 year short service engagement. Aged 19, and a former labourer, he attested in Liverpool on 30 May 1899 and joined the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment in London the following day as Private, number 2795. Tom's service record has survived. In it he names his close kin as his mother and brother, both of whom were living at 10 Cornwallis Street, Limerick (City).

After initial training and service on the Home Front, Tom was sent to South Africa, arriving on 23 May 1900 and remaining there for the remainder of the South African (Second Boer) War. Tom was awarded the King's South Africa Medal with clasps for 1901 and 1902, Witteburgen, Cape Colony and Transvaal. He arrived back in UK on 28 October 1902 and was transferred to active reserve on 1 November. It appears that Tom came to live in our area at that time as his brother was already here. There is a Timothy Ryan from Limerick, of approximately the right age, shown in the Census for 31 March 1901 boarding at Bridge Terrace, Trunnah Road and working as a pipe fitter.

Widows Alms Houses, Limerick

Tim married Mary Ann Keeley in 1906 and Tom married her younger sister Margaret Ann on 10 October 1908 at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Heys Street, Thornton. The Keeley sisters were born in Widnes, Lancashire: Mary on 27 June 1875 and Margaret on 7 May 1878. They were the daughters of Patrick Keeley and his wife Elizabeth Delaney who were born in Ireland and who married in Widnes in 1868. Patrick was a chemical labourer and the Keeley family moved to Thornton around the turn of the century. Patrick's sons Denis, James and Patrick junior were all lodging in Burn Naze by the time of the Census on 31 March 1901 and the rest of the family followed soon after making their home at 5 Heys Terrace. Margaret's parents both died in 1910, her mother in an unfortunate accident. She never recovered from breaking a hip after slipping on a piece of orange peel in Ormerod Street whilst walking back home from Denis's wedding reception in Edward Street.

On a happier note, Tom and Margaret's first child, Mary Agnes, was born in Thornton on 30 September the same year. In the Census taken on 2 April 1911 they were living at 5 Heys Terrace. The two Ryan brothers and the three Keeley brothers all worked at United Alkali, Burn Naze. Kate Ryan, then aged 63, was recorded in the 1911 Census living in Nicholas Street, Limerick in one of the Corporation's Widow's Almshouses. The almshouses were usually offered to widows of former soldiers so it may well be that Tom had followed his father into the army.

Tom was discharged from the Army on 29 May 1911 at the end of his contracted service. A son, Thomas Gerard, was born on 16 October the following year. Tom continued to work at United Alkali until shortly before the outbreak of the Second War when he became a labourer on the railway.

Tom was one of the first men from our area to enlist, joining the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Lancaster on 11 August 1914. He was posted initially to the 3rd Battalion on 19 August. That Battalion remained at home but, as an experienced soldier, Tom was transferred to the 2nd Regiment which was sent to France on 23 February 1915 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Tom was killed in action on 8 May 1915 at the Battle of Frezenberg. He was aged 35.

Margaret received the following letter from Lieut. Dudley Howard Hazell, who commanded "D" Company, 2nd Battalion, K.O.R.L. "Dear Madam - I regret to say your husband was killed in action about the 8th May. I was not in the trenches at the time, but, as I expect you have seen by the papers, this battalion had a very rough time on that day - there being many casualties. I did not know your husband, but I hear from all the men who did that he did his duty as a man, and died as a gentleman and brave soldier."

Pte. Thomas Ryan, 2757, 2nd Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment is remembered on Panel 12 of the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. By 1921, the sisters Margaret and Mary Ryan were living next door to each other at Holly Bank, 6-8 Crabtree Road, Thornton.