Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Private Thomas Trayers was one of a group from the Lancashire Fusiliers who passed through Peterborough East Station and signed the visitors’ book on 25 November 1916. It is thought he was in the 20^th Battalion, known as the Salford Pals, and had been in France since the end of January 1916.

Thomas had enlisted on 29 July 1915, missing the regiment’s involvement at Gallipoli.  It appears that he was wounded towards the end of the war because he was discharged as ‘No longer physically fit for war service’  on 9 December 1919 and awarded the silver War Badge.

Prior to the war he had lived in Back Bridge Street, Stalybridge with parents Joseph and Ellen.  Joseph’s parents had both moved from their native Ireland to Lincolnshire in the 1800s and Joseph settled in the Greater Manchester area working as a boiler maker.  At aged 13 Thomas was a croft lad, bleaching for a calico printers.  This involved bleaching cloth prior to dyeing and spreading it out in enclosed fields, or “crofts”.

He married Nellie Cusick in Ashton under Lyme, Manchester in 1920.  Thomas had returned to the cotton industry after the war and in 1939 he and his family were living in Miller Street, Ashton under Lyme.  Thomas as working as a cotton blower and Nellie was also in the cotton trade.  Their son Thomas who had been born in 1921, was an apprentice wood pattern maker.

Thomas Trayers died at the age of 56 in 1954, still in Ashton under Lyme.

Do you recognise this soldier’s story?  Could he be a relative of yours?  If so, please get in touch and tell us more.