People on board

THOMAS, Ezekiel

Ezekiel (Ezecial in Welsh) Thomas was born in April 1895 in Llanrwst, Denbighshire, North Wales. He was the eldest child of Evan Thomas and Margaret J Jones who had married in 1894, and by the 1901 census there were two more sons, Robert and John. Evan was a ‘Labourer in Brick Works’ and had a brother William who had moved to Liverpool and a sister Margaret, who had married a farmer, John Roberts. In 1911 Ezekiel was working for the Roberts on Mynydd Farm near Colwyn Bay, aged fifteen and described as a ‘Servant’ in the census.

In August 1916 the North Wales Chronicle reported that Ezekiel Thomas of Myndd Farm, Mochdre was “ordered to pay 5s for not obscuring an acetylene light”, so it appears that he was still working there. A few months later he married Annie Hughes in St Asaph and in the last quarter of 1917 a son was born, who they named Ezekiel.

In June 1918 he enlisted with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Colwyn Bay and was sent to Limerick for training with the 3rd Reserve Battalion. His father Evan died on the 6th of October and Ezekiel was returning to Wales for the funeral when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th. He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and was buried with full military honours in Grangegorman military cemetery in Dublin. He is also remembered in Glan Conwy War Memorial.