2nd Lieut Thomas Albert Wray Dean

• Age: 27
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W Wednesday 8th May 1918
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 31-34

Thomas Albert Wray Dean was born in Toxteth Park in September 1890 the son of Robert Dean and his wife Louisa Jane (nee Cushing) who were married in 1883 in Liverpool. Both were originally from Liverpool. 

His mother died in 1904 at the age of 46.

His father remarried Charlotte Annie Hamilton in 1909 at St. Matthew with St. James Church, Mossley Hill, Liverpool.

The 1911 Census shows Charlotte Dean as the head of the household at 61 Wellington Avenue, Wavertree, she is aged 42 born in Maybole, Ayrshire. Thomas is shown as aged 20, stepson, and employed as an apprentice tailors cutter. His sister Daisy Muriel Dean, 22, is shown as having been born in Karachi, India. Also present is Charlotte's brother John C Hamilton aged 40 also born at Maybole, Ayrshire.      

He enlisted in the 12th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 35126, he was promoted to Lance Corporal.

Although he does not appear again the Battalion War Diary of the 18th Battalion, he is listed by ‘Officers Died in the Great War ‘,as having died of wounds on 8th May 1918. On that date, the three remaining Pals Battalions who then formed the 89th Brigade, were engaged in repulsing the Germans in the Ypres Salient at a position that ran from Viverbeek to Klein Vierstraat. The 18th Battalion had provided just over a Company strength for a hastily formed unit, known as the 17th (Composite Battalion), The King’s Liverpool Regiment. The Composite Battalion was heavily engaged with the enemy throughout May 8th and 9th, and although Second-Lieutenant Dean is not mentioned at all in the narratives of the fighting, it is most likely that it was during this phase that he received his fatal wounds. This is borne out by the fact that his body was not found and identified after the war, which would indicate that he was either buried on the battlefield and his grave subsequently lost, or simply that he was known to have died of wounds, but his body was not discovered after the action. Had he died of wounds in a rear area, away from the Battle front, his body is far more likely to have survived intact to be subsequently identified.

He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient, at Passchendaele.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

The Memorial Register does not contain any personal information or family details, but merely lists Thomas’s name, rank, unit and date of death. This is surprising as Thomas was initially declared Wounded and Missing on 08th May 1918 and his father Robert made enquiries with the International Red Cross but was informed in a reply dated 18th June 1918 they they held no information on Thomas. 

Despite the fact that the 20th Battalion was disbanded three months before Second-Lieutenant Dean’s death, he is still officially listed as belonging to that unit.

Thomas is also commemorated by an inscription on the family grave in Toxteth Park Cemetery, Liverpool which states :

ALSO THOMAS A W DEAN, SON OF THE ABOVE, 2ND LIEUTENANT, 18TH BATT. K. L. R., WHO DIED IN FRANCE 8TH MAY 1918,AGED 27 YEARS.

Although the inscription on the family grave states that Dean died in France, and not Belgium, this was a fairly common mistake made during and after the Great War, as many people, servicemen, and civilians alike, regarded the whole of the Western Front as France.

Soldiers Effects to father Robert, Pension to Robert and mother Charlotte Annie, Mariners Parade, Egremont.

Probate of £241, 6s & 2d made in Liverpool on 28/07/19 to father, Robert Dean, master mariner of 61 Wellington Avenue, Wavertree, Liverpool. 

His father died in the June quarter of 1943, aged 87. 

We currently have no further information on Thomas Albert Wray Dean. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.