Sergeant Thomas Simpson Housley
Possibly 61253 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers
Thomas was born in 1889 at Bagthorpe, the son of William Simpson Housley, a coal miner b.1852 Selston and his wife Emma (nee Smithurst) who married at Selston, St. Helen’s in 1874. In 1911 the family was living at Bagthorpe and Thomas’s father was listed as a retired miner. Thomas was one of 12 children altogether of whom, by 1911, 9 had survived. Siblings were William b. 1875, Mary Alice b. 1877, John b. 1880, Martha b. 1882, Elizabeth b. 1886, Emma b. 1891, Hilda b. 1893 and Frank b. 1897. His brother William went on to be a music teacher and is listed in Kelly’s Directory for 1928 at Selston.
Thomas married Sarah A. Straw in 1912 in the Basford District and they had children Harold b. 1913, Annie b. 1920 and Thomas B. b. 1925. They lived at New Westwood, at the top of the street and formed a building firm called’ Thomas Housley & Sons’, using the old Primitive Methodist Chapel on Palmerston Street as business premises. Son Harold Simpson Housely went on to form ‘Ambergate Builders’.
Thomas’s military records do not seem to have survived but if he did serve with the Scots Fusiliers, service number 6253, then he was a recipient of the 1914-15 Star, (arriving in France in July 1915) and also the British War and Victory medals. Further information would be very welcome.
Thomas died on 7th March 1958, residence given as 59, New Westwood and his wife Sarah died in 1968 in the Belper District.