St Pauls Church – Memories

7.00 O’clock
sponsored by Elizabeth Anderson, in memory of her brother, Thomas Tate
Forwarded by Lesley Tate, PCC Secretary at St. Mary Magdalene church, from her article written for the churches’ Locality News magazine.

The Time has Come

George and Ken are delighted to hear the War Memorial Clock
at St Paul’s Church chime again!
Time no longer stands still for people of Deaf Hill !
The clock is back to its former glory thanks to the inspired campaign
to raise money by encouraging local people to ‘buy some time’.

This has caught the imagination of the local community and among them, Elizabeth Anderson. Elizabeth’s parents and husband, along with members of the Playing Fields Committee, helped to raise funds for the original clock back in the late forties in memory of her brother Thomas Tate, who actually died just after the war had ended. His name appears on the Roll of Honour and his story goes like this;

At end of the war, Thomas was asked by the War Office to go to India to train Indian Sappers – a posting which would last for three years.  But Thomas had a wife and university studies to get back to and so he opted for a posting in France. Once on board the boat for France, he was, rather surprisingly, issued with tropical kit, immediately promoted from corporal to sergeant and found himself on his way to India after all! He was soon moved to South East Asia, from where his family were informed of his death in 1946 through an accident in which he suffered a fracture to the base of the skull. But eventually the truth was revealed – he had died during an act of sabotage by the Viet Cong.

Elizabeth has ‘bought’ 7 o’clock in perpetual memory of the time when her family received the telegram informing them of Thomas’s death.

 

 

 

Elizabeth and husband Bill still live in Trimdon Village.
Deaf Hill and Colliery folk may remember them well from the years they spent supplying excellent fish & chips in the Foundry Fish Shop.