Thomas William Lewin of Ayston died on his 22nd birthday. He was born in Empingham on 18 June 1895, and died on that same date in 1917. His mother Ellen Lewin and the family had moved to Ayston and Thomas was a farm labourer and milkman before joining up on 1 March 1916 in Uppingham, enlisting in the 9th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment. He went to the Western Front the following June, and fought in a number of battles with his regiment for the next year. He was killed in action although little is known about the circumstances of his death. George Phillips says he died on 15 June 1917 although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his death on 18 June. Thomas is buried at Croisilles British Cemetery, grave I.E.10 and is remembered on Ayston's war memorial.