Private Basil Edwin Thomson
Regimental Number: 428035
Enlistment Date / Location / Unit: 11 March 1915 / New Westminster, BC / 47th Battalion
Birth Date / Location: 1 December 1890 / Mount Lehman, BC
Parents: Edwin Jay Thomson and Clarissa Abigail McCallum
Occupation on Enlistment: Fisherman
Date of Death / Location: 26 September 1916 / Courcelette
Age at Death: 25
Unit on Date of Death, or on Demobilization: 2nd Brigade Machine Gun Company
Circumstances of Death: Reported Missing during the Battle of Courcelette
Cemetery or Memorial: Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France
Medals / Awards: British War Medal, Victory Medal
Where commemorated: Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France; Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Veterans Affairs Canada; First World War Book of Remembrance page 173, Memorial Chamber, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, ON; Maple Ridge Cenotaph, Maple Ridge, BC; St John the Divine Anglican Church Memorial Plaque, Maple Ridge, BC; Municipality of Maple Ridge Honour Roll, St John the Divine Anglican Church, Maple Ridge, BC; The Gold Stripe Roll of Honour, Maple Ridge, page 89
Basil “Base” Edwin Thomson was born in Mount Lehman (Abbotsford) BC in 1890, the second of the nine children born to Edwin Jay and Clarissa Abigail (nee McCallum) Thomson. His father was a storekeeper and postmaster for a number of years then, in the late 1890s Edwin Thomson turned more to farming. About 1901-02 the family located to Barnston Island in the Fraser River between Pitt Meadows and Surrey where they continued farming. The family conducted business in nearby Maple Ridge and worshipped at St John the Divine Anglican Church.
Base was a member of the 104th Westminster Fusiliers of Canada before enlistment. Base was 24 when he enlisted in March 1915, he had blue eyes and blond hair and stood 1.6 meters (5 feet 5 inches) tall. He arrived in England on 10 October 1915 and in June 1916 he was trained as a Signaler. Signalers had the hazardous job of running telephone lines between the front and the rear lines. Encumbered with spools of telephone wires and repairing damaged lines during battle, they often could carry no weapons.
Upon completion of his training, on 28th July Basil was transferred to the 2nd Brigade Machine Gun Company and joined the unit in the field on 9 August. Basil was reported Missing on 26 September 1916 during the Battle of Courcelette. His remains were never recovered.
B. Thomson was commemorated on the Cenotaph when it was unveiled in 1923, though incorrectly inscribed as Thompson. In 2007, on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, his family was afforded the opportunity to commemorate Base by contributing to the Memorial Capsule.
(Updated 27-Jan-2024)
Private Roland Francis Croasdaile THOMSON
Regimental Number: 629566
Enlistment Date / Location / Unit: 29 September 1915 / Vernon, BC / 47th Battalion
Birth Date / Location: 20 November 1875 / Belfast, Ireland
Parents: William Lisle Thomson and Anna Marie Harrison
Occupation on Enlistment: Rancher
Date of Death / Location: 26 September 1916 / Courcelette
Age at Death: 40
Unit on Date of Death, or on Demobilization: 14th Battalion
Circumstances of Death: Killed in the area of the Somme
Cemetery or Memorial: Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France
Where commemorated: Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France; Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Veterans Affairs Canada; First World War Book of Remembrance page 173, Memorial Chamber, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, ON; Maple Ridge Cenotaph, Maple Ridge, BC; Municipality of Pitt Meadows Honour Roll, Pitt Meadows United Church, Pitt Meadows, BC; Pitt Meadows Cenotaph, Pitt Meadows, BC; The Gold Stripe Roll of Honour, Pitt Meadows, page 119; Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914-1918, page 160; UK, DeRuvigny’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1918, page 211
Roland Francis Croasdaile Thomson was born in Ireland in 1875 to Anna Maria (nee Harrison) and William Lisle Thomson, a linen merchant. Roland’s mother died when he was 10 years old and his father died when he was 17. About 1896 Roland enlisted with the 62nd Middlesex Yeomanry in England, transferring to the 14th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry (a cavalry unit) (Regimental No. 6387) when he served in the South Africa War 1900-1901. He received the Queen’s South Africa medal with clasps for Wittenbergen and Cape Colony.
Invalided from South Africa, Roland lived in Ireland in the household of his sister Edith Gertrude (nee Thomson) and her husband Fitzjames Chute for about 10 years. In 1911 he and his younger brother Maurice Gordon “Gordon” immigrated to Canada, destination given was Vancouver, BC. Roland settled in Pitt Meadows. Roland was a member of the 104th Westminster Fusiliers of Canada.
Roland and his brother Maurice “Gordon” Thomson, Regimental No. 629565 enlisted together. Thirty-nine year old Roland was 1.75 meters (5 feet 8-1/2 inches) tall, had hazel eyes and his hair was turning grey when he enlisted. He sported a tattoo on his right forearm “62nd Yeomanry”. He gave his occupation as rancher. However, he was also a member of the first municipal council for Pitt Meadows in April 1914 when it became a separate municipality from Maple Ridge. Roland was reelected in 1915. He was the councilor in charge of road work, and he was the secretary of the Pitt Meadows War Relief Fund.
Less than two months after enlisting, on 23 November 1915, Roland arrived in England. On 7 June 1916 he arrived in France and was transferred to the 14th Battalion two days later. Four months later on 26 September 1916 he lost his life at the Somme near Courcelette. His remains were not recovered.
He and his brother Gordon “fought together for several months in the trenches” according to an article in the 15 November 1916 Vancouver Daily World. “The two brothers charged a German trench together and shortly afterwards the younger brother was moved away to another sector. He did not see his brother again in life.” Gordon survived the war and lived in New Westminster, BC until his death in 1933.
R. Thomson was added to the Cenotaph in 2000 as R.F.C. Thompson as part of the Legion’s Millennium project.
(Updated 19-Feb-2024)
