Sapper Thomas Beaver worked as a blacksmith before joining the Royal Engineers on 6 January 1915. He and his twin brother Harry were born in Lowersby in Leicestershire, the sons of Jane and Elizabeth Beaver. Thomas married his wife Mary in Wing on 14 March 1910 and the couple moved to Gas Street in Oakham. They had three children, Beatrice, Meta and Thomas Jnr. Beatrice was 6 when her father died, Thomas Jnr just 2. Thomas went out to France on 28 September 1915 and  took part in the Battle of the Somme the following year, serving with 130th Field Company. The war diary does not give exact details as to where he was injured, but it is assumed that it was in the Aveluy area on the Somme on the 10th October, when more than 20 officers and men were wounded in fighting.  Thomas died on 29 October 1916, at Etaples, where many of those injured on the Somme were taken to be treated for wounds in one of the numerous hospitals in the area. He was buried at Etaples Military Cemetery, grave VIII.E.13, and is remembered on the war memorial in Oakham. 

See where all our Rutland soldiers died during the Battle of the Somme on our interactive map.