Thomas Edward Nelmes

Thomas Nelmes was born in Coleford in 1876, the son of Mary Ann Nelmes, who was single. He was brought up by his grandmother Jane Nelmes, who kept a lodging house near Coleford. He started working in the mines after he left school. Jane died in 1906, leaving him with no close family.  In 1899 and 1905, he was convicted of drunkenness and in 1910, he was found guilty of using obscene language. In 1914, he was convicted of housebreaking and stealing beef, butter and bread in Shropshire. He was arrested at the workhouse in Market Drayton and described as a tramp, but considered by the police to be of good character and was therefore bound over and discharged.

Nelmes enlisted in the Army at Horfield in Bristol in April 1916 and joined the King’s Liverpool Regiment. He deserted in early May 1917, within a month of active service and went on the run.

On 24 May 1917, Nelmes broke into a house in Highnam, near Gloucester and stole five silver bangles. He then sold one of the bangles to a man who had agreed to give him a cup of tea. He told the man that he had been gassed in France and was given the bangles by a comrade on the Somme. He later sold the remaining bangles to a watchmaker. He was arrested at his lodgings in Newent. He pleaded guilty at his trial on 12 June. His character, whilst in the army, was described as bad. He was imprisoned with hard labour for four months.^[1]

On release from prison, Nelmese was handed back to the military and appeared before a court-martial on 1 November 1917 and convicted of desertion. He was sentenced to six months in a military prison, remitted to eighty-four days.^[2]

A Thomas E Nelmes died in Ross in 1920

[1] Gloucester Journal 9 June 1917 and Gloucester Journal 16 June 1917.             

[2]  Fold3