CRAMPTON, Thomas

Thomas Crampton was born in Cradley and was married to Florrie in September 1906. They had one child, Dulcie Verena and lived at 27 Buffery Road, Dudley. He worked as a sorting clerk and telegrapher at Dudley Post Office. When conscription for military service was introduced in 1916, he was informed that he would only be released from civilian work for service in the Signals. A letter of 15 November 1916 instructed him to go to the Signals Depot at Bletchley for training. When this was completed, he embarked for the Middle East in August 1917 and was posted to the Cape Signals Company on the 13th October. He moved to India in June 1918 and was then transferred to Palestine which had been captured from the Turks in late 1917. It was at the base Signals Depot where he developed an illness and was taken to a military hospital at Haifa. Here he died from dysentery on the 27th October 1918. Fighting had long since ceased in the area but disease was a serious killer at the end of the war. He was 37 years of age and is buried in Haifa War Cemetery (B 33). His few possessions were sent off to his widow on the 24th November. In April 1919 Florence was awarded a widow's pension of 20 shillings and 5 pence weekly and later moved to 20 Central Avenue, Rowley Regis. Sapper Thomas Crampton is commemorated on the Dudley, St. John's church, Kates Hill and Dudley Post Office Memorials.