The Conisbrough and Denaby 100 Project
Thomas Jubb
Thomas Edward Jubb was born in around 1894 to Edward Tasker Jubb and Mary Ann Goddard, in Lincoln. Edward was a bricklayer, and the couple moved to Conisbrough in the late 1890s, possibly for Edward to find work as in the 1891 census the couple were living with their eldest child Louisa in Ordsall, Nottinghamshire and Edward was working as a General Labourer.
By 1901 the family are living at 66 Blythe Street, Denaby and comprises of Edward, Mary, Louisa, Nellie, Thomas himself, Robert and youngest child Mary Ann. Mary Ann was born in Sheffield, and is 9 months old, whilst next eldest child Robert - who is 5 years old - was born in Lincoln like Thomas, suggesting the family only moved to Denaby around the turn of the century.
In 1911, the family has expanded again to include youngest sons Edward Thomas and John, who were born in Denaby and Mexborough. The family is living now at 85 Blythe Street, along with a boarder Charles Rowbotham, who works as a coal miner, as do Thomas and fourth child Robert who is just 15. Sadly, father Edward is listed as ‘Bricklayer out of work’. Thomas himself is listed as working as a coal miner ‘at pit bottom’; quite a hard job for a 17 year old.
Thomas's medal index card (click for larger image)
Thomas’ service records no longer exist, but his medal index card shows us that Thomas was awarded the Victory and British medals, but no Star medal meaning that he didn’t see overseas frontline service until after 1915. As he died on 28th February 1916, it’s unfortunate that he was likely only actually at the front a few weeks before he was wounded, and subsequently died. His pension records show that he ‘died from wounds received in action’. The war diaries show that the battalion were located around Armentieres through most of January and February 1916, and received a significant number of men to bulk up their numbers; quite likely Thomas was one of those men. During this period they moved regularly between front line, support and reserve trenches on a roughly ‘2 days in each line’ pattern.
In quite uncharacteristic fashion, the war diaries for the 10th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment list not only the casualties, but how and where they became a casualty and whether they were killed or wounded. From this, we can see that Thomas was killed outright whilst either on a working party, or resting (as opposed to being in the trenches). The date against his death is the 29th February (1916 was a leap year) however his death is officially recorded as the 28th. From this, it can be taken that he was likely killed at night on the 28th, and his death was recorded only on the 29th. He was killed along with Pte Kane, whilst a further three were wounded. Thomas is buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Record of Thomas's death in the Battalion War Diaries
(click for larger image)
We visited Thomas' grave at Bailleul Communal Cemetery in August 2014, and laid his tribute.
