Current Information:

85, Shakespeare Road, Stoke Newington

Cambrin Military Cemetery, France

The First World War saw an enormous growth in the size of the British army, not just in the infantry and artillery but also in all of the other branches including the Royal Engineers, without whom the war could not have been fought. The engineers were responsible for the maintenance of all the supply routes to the front line including roads, bridges, canals, railways. They looked after the telephones and the embryonic wireless system and they made sure that there was a water supply. They designed and built the fortifications both in the front line and further back, including gun emplacements and they were responsible for all tunnelling and mining work. Each division usually had three Field Companies attached to them and when an attack went in so did the engineers to help consolidate any gains made.

Thomas Westfall was killed on 19th March, 1915, while serving with the 11th Field Company of the Royal Engineers, part of 2nd Division, which had been on the Western Front since the start of the war in 1914. On 19th March he was working on the repair of a dam at Pont Fixe on the La Bassee canal near Cuinchy but the unit diary gives no information about how he was killed.