Thomas McCaskie Thomas was one of four McCaskie brothers who served in the Great War. Their parents were William McCaskie (b. Stranraer 1858; d. Northumberland 1949) and Alison (or Alice) McCaskie (née McCulloch) (b. Smithy Brae, Maybole, Ayrshire, 1861, d. Northumberland 1944). William McCaskie and Alice McCulloch married at Maybole on 9th November 1883. William was a professional gardener. Two of the brothers - James and John - were killed and are commemorated on the Coldstream War Memorial. The couple had seven children, one of whom died in infancy. The eldest child William was born in Maybole on 4th September 1884; at the time his father was employed by William Halliday Lidderdale as a gardener at Lochbank, Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire. Previously he had worked as a gardener at Ayr, and had lived in Victoria Park. The second son John and the third son Thomas were born at Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire in 1886 and 1888 respectively. At that time their father William was employed at Ardwell Gardens, Stoneykirk. John died in 1891 before his 5th birthday, when the family were living in Maxwelltown, Kirkcudbrightshire. The fourth son James was born in Maxwelltown in 1891. In 1893 the family were at Benvoulin Lodge, Oban, Argyll, where the fifth son John McCulloch McCaskie was born. The couple’s only daughter Janet was born in 1899 also at Benvoulin Lodge. By the time of the 1901 census the family had moved to Carham in Northumberland, where William was employed as a gardener probably at Carham Hall. The youngest son Walter Lloyd McCaskie was born at Carham in 1903. By 1911 the family were living in Coldstream, at No. 2 Dovecot. In 1911 and 1913 William is described as a ‘head gardener’ at The Hirsel, the seat of the Earls of Hume. |
Thomas McCaskie was butcher by trade. He had worked as a butcher for Andrew W Dickson, who, as well as owning a butchery, was the registrar in Coldstream. When Dickson gave up his butchery business in late 1911, Thomas had to seek work elsewhere. In 1913 he came to Wooler and when the War broke out he was working as a butcher for Walter Curry and his son David at their premises in the High Street, Wooler. Thomas joined the Army in January 1917 and served with the King's (Liverpool) Regiment and served until he was discharged in 1919.
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After the Great War Thomas married Margaret Ellen (Maggie) Rule and the couple had a daughter Sheila Mary McCaskie born in 1921. In 1925 Thomas had opened his own butcher’s shop at Maiden Terrace, Peth Head, Wooler. Thomas maintained at least one well-turned out van for deliveries to outlying settlements. An article published in The Meat Trades Journal in 1930 included a reference to 'one of the smartest motor delivery vans I have seen . . . Thomas McCaskie . . . is in business at isolated, sleepy old Wooler, but he isn't asleep in the interests of his trade, for he sends out his orders, and probably has a "calling" connection too, in a smart motor van shining with cleanliness, and glass doors behind, showing the dust protected contents inside". The article was penned by 'Hambletonian' (Major John Fairfax-Blakeborough) and the section about Tom McCaskie was reproduced on page 6 of The Berwick Advertiser of 23rd October 1930. [Note 1]
Service in the Great War - Letters from Thomas McCaskie to Margaret Ellen (Maggie) Rule written during the Great War (30 January 1917 to 13 April 1919)
Thomas McCaskie was called up at the beginning of 1917. He wrote letters to Maggie Rule throughout his time in the Army, from when he joined up to just before he was demobilised in August 1919. There are periods particularly in 1917 and 1918 when there are no surviving letters. This may have been due as much to Tom's circumstances at the time as to loss of letters. There are no surviving letters from Maggie to Tom, though we know from references in Tom's letters that she wrote regularly and sent him parcels. It is very likely that Tom kept at least some letters about him, but it is also possible that any letters he tried to keep were lost through circumstances beyond his control especially during the tumultuous events of the German Spring Offensives of 1918 following which Tom's battalion was reduce to a cadre strength. In publishing the letters I have attempted to set them in context. For Tom's service with the 19th battalion King's (Liverpool Regiment) I have mainly relied upon the Battalion War Diary (TNA WO 95/2334/2), together with Brigadier General F C Stanley's The History of the 89th Brigade 1914-1918 (Liverpool 1919), Graham Maddock's Liverpool Pals. 17th, 18th, 19th & 20th Battalions The King's (Liverpool Regiment) (Barnsley, 1991) and Everard Wyrall’s three volume The History of the King's Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 (London, 1928-1935). |
Forty seven letters survive, His first letter written en route to join the Army Service Corps suggests that he went through the necessary formalities involved in joining the Army in Newcastle - including having a haircut - prior to travelling to London by train. The first dozen letters are written while Tom was training in Britain. Tom landed in France in June 1917. His last letter before departure for the front was dated 9th June and sent from Rugely Camp. The next letter dated 24th June was sent from the 31st Infantry Base Depot at Étaples. Between July and December 1917 Thomas wrote a further 10 letters, although there are no surviving letters from October or November 1917. There are just 13 letters for the whole of 1918. Understandably there are very few letters from the first half of 1918, with no letters from February, March or June. There are more letters from the second half of the year, but no letters in August. From 1919 there are 11 letters. For part of this period Thomas was hospitalised, and he had more time to write.
(The letters tend to lack punctuation, which I have supplied as I feel appropriate. I have not corrected the occasional mispelt word) |