2nd Lieutenant Thomas FIRMINGER
9th (Reserve) Battalion East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) attached to the 8th (Service) Battalion

Date of birth: 6th August 1886
Date of death: 3rd September 1916

Killed in action aged 30
Buried at Fricourt British Cemetery Row B Grave 20
He was born at New Norfolk, Tasmania on the 6th of August 1886 the only son of the Reverend Thomas David Charles Firminger MA, Vicar of Charlton Adam, and Emmeline (nee Walton) of the Vicarage, Charlton Adam in Somerset, later of “Fricourt”, Penn Hill Avenue, Parkstone in Dorset.

He was educated at Gore Court School, Sittingbourne and at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1901 to July 1903. After school he joined the legal profession. He worked for three and a half years for the Agricultural Bank of Egypt but was discharged due to staff reductions following the Egyptian financial crisis. On the 14th of March 1914 he boarded the SS "Sardinia" at London bound for Ceylon where he became a tea planter and a member of the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps.

Following the outbreak of war he returned to England and enlisted at Bath as Private G/5719 in the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) on the 11th of February 1915. At a medical examination, which was held on the same day, it was recorded that he was five feet eight and one eighth of an inch tall and that he weighed 130lbs. He was posted for training to Fort Darland at Chatham. On the 24th of July 1915 he applied from Fort Darland for a commission in the 9th (Reserve) Battalion East Kent Regiment (The Buffs). On the 10th of August 1915 he was brought up on a charge by a Sergeant Piper for - "when on active service irregular conduct on parade firing a round of blank ammunition". He appeared before Captain Whitly on the 12th of August who found him guilty of the charge and passed a sentence of three days confinement to barracks.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th (Reserve) Battalion East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) on the 15th of August 1915. He joined the battalion at Shoreham and in March 1916 he served for a while with the 7th Young Officers Company in Ireland. He was attached to the 8th Battalion of his regiment for war service and he embarked for France on the 10th of May 1916.

His father received the following telegram dated the 6th of August 1916: -

"2 Lieut. T. Firminger 9 att 8 East Kent Regt. admitted 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital Amiens July 31 with slight tonsillitis. Further news will be sent when received."

At 9pm on the 2nd of September 1916 the 8th Battalion East Kent Regiment relieved a battalion of the Leinster Regiment in Worcester and McDougal trenches near Delville Wood on the Somme from where they were detailed to make an attack the following day. Runners were sent out with messages to synchronize the attack with the Brigade on the left but all of them were killed. As a result the attack started later than planned, at noon.

As soon as the men of B Company, who were leading the attack, rose from their trenches they were met by both an enemy artillery barrage and by heavy machine gun fire from an enemy strongpoint at the junction of Wood Lane and Tea Trench. Within one minute all the officers and the Company Sergeant Major of B Company had become casualties and the attack failed. It took half an hour before news of the failure reached battalion headquarters where Major Hamilton, the officer commanding, after completing a personal reconnaissance, ordered a fresh attack for 4pm. The artillery was co-ordinated and the attack went ahead. The artillery did not lift from the German lines as arranged and the machine gun fire from a strong point in front meant that this attack also failed. Some bombers managed to gain the enemy trench and work towards the enemy strong point but all the supporting infantry were hit and the attack broke down. The battalion was relieved by the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers at 1am the following morning. Thomas Firminger and sixteen other ranks were killed with six officers and eighty one other ranks wounded and with nine other ranks missing.

His father received the following telegram dated the 8th of September 1916: -

"Deeply regret to inform you 2Lt. T. Firminger East Kent Regt. was killed in action 3 September. The Army Council express their sympathy."

At the time of his death he is thought to have been engaged to be married to Miss Mary Steier, who he described in his will as his fiancé.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Charlton Adam and on the Australian National War Memorial.
 

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