William Thomas was killed on 31st May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland when he was a stoker on HMS Invincible.
William was born on 23rd February 1893 in West Hartlepool to parents David Thomas, a steel works labourer originally from Consett, and his wife Mary Jane, nee Murray. The couple had married in Hartlepool in 1894. In Ebchester Co. Durham in 1881, David was 6 years old and living with his father Thomas Thomas a furnaceman from Glamorgan.
William was the oldest of the 8 children, and in 1911, the family were at 14 Ward Street. Both William and his father David were given as steelworks labourers.
When her son was killed in May 1916, Mary Jane Thomas, at the family home, which was then Florence St, was informed of her son's death.
