People on board

WILLIAMS, Thomas Percy Baker

Thomas Percy Baker Williams was born on the 10th of June 1898 in the small town of Brownhills near Lichfield, Staffordshire to Thomas Williams and Edith Corbett. Brownhills grew around the coal mining industry and both father and son were miners. A second son, Benjamin, was born in February 1900. In 1901 the family were living in the nearby town of Hammerwich. Edith Williams died in 1904 at the age of thirty and in 1911 Thomas Percy and Benjamin were living with their childless uncle and aunt, John and Ann Williams, in Brownhills. Thomas Snr. has not been found in that census.

Thomas Percy Williams (known as Percy B.) enlisted in Birmingham in June 1915 in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, Plymouth Division (Number 18195). He gave his brother Benjamin as his next of kin with an address of Watling Street, Brownhills, Walsall, his uncle’s address. His military record shows that he was in the Plymouth Division until May 1916 when he transferred to HMS Colleen, a depot ship at Haulbowline in Queenstown, Cork. He remained there for the rest of his career.

Meanwhile his brother Benjamin enlisted in February 1917 in the Leicestershire Yeomanry. He gave his address as 129 Unitt (Unett) Street in Smethwick, Birmingham and his next of kin as his father, Thomas Williams, at the Unett Street address.

Thomas Percy B Williams was presumably going home on leave from Cork when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918. He did not survive the sinking, nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and on the Brownhills War Memorial.