Swanger, Thomas Slade (Thomas)

Lance Corporal

No. 157563, Inland Water Transport, Royal Engineers

Drowned on active service on Thursday 10 May 1917 (aged 43)

Buried:

Newtownards (Movilla) Cemetery, Co. Down (Grave 11. 97)

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

BIOGRAPHY

In some records his surname is spelt Swainger.

Thomas Slade Swanger was born on 14 February 1874 in Bristol, and he was a son of John and Sarah Ann Swanger (nee Davis) who were married on 10 September 1871 in Holy Trinity Church of England Church, Bristol.  John Swanger (aged 26), an iron moulder, was a son of Thomas Swanger, a deceased blacksmith.  Sarah Ann Davis (aged 19), a servant, was a daughter of William James Davis, a haulier.  They had at least five children:

Elizabeth (born around 1872 in Bristol)

Thomas Slade (born 14 February 1874 in Bristol)

William (born around 1876 in Bristol)

Freddy (born around 1878 in Bristol)

Annie (born around 1880 in Bristol)

Their father, John Swanger, died on 18 March 1913 and was buried in Avonview Cemetery, Bristol.

Their mother, Sarah Ann Swanger, died on 7 April 1915 and was buried in Avonview Cemetery, Bristol.

Thomas Slade Swanger and Thurza (sometimes Thursia) Pocock were married on 21 July 1901 in St Clement’s Church Bristol, and they had at least nine children:

Thomas George (born 20 January 1902)

Gladys Eveline (born 6 April 1903)

Hilda May (born 17 November 1904)

Arthur John (born 17 August 1906)

William Henry

Doris Lilian

Elsie Florence (born 29 September 1911)

Ivy Maude (born 29 December 1913)

Dorothy Grace (born 17 April 1915)

At least two of their children died in infancy.

In 1911 the Swanger family was living at 116 Newfoundland Road, St Paul’s, Bristol, Gloucestershire.  Thomas Slade Swanger worked as a dock labourer.

Thomas Slade Swanger enlisted in Bristol and he served with Inland Water Transport in the Royal Engineers.

With a crew of 19 men, the Steam Tug PT1 left Greenock at 10.00am on Wednesday 9 May 1917 bound for Mesopotamia (now Iraq).  When nine miles south of the Calf of Man on 10 May 1917 the ship began to take in water because of a mechanical failure.  Captain Donald McLeod ordered the crew to take to the lifeboats.  The starboard boat got clear, but the port boat capsized, and the occupants fell into the sea.  Six men died.

Lance Corporal Thomas Slade Swanger (No. 157563) was found drowned at Ballyhalbert on 10 May 1917 and he was buried in Movilla New Cemetery, Newtownards.