Thomas John Ballard: A Cavalryman’s Journey in WWI

Early Life and Family

Thomas John Ballard was born in Dover, Kent, on 20 February 1891, the son of Richard John Ballard and Rose Ann Canavan. He was baptised a month later, on 21 March 1891, at St Andrew’s Church, Buckland, Dover. The family was then living at 16 George Street in Buckland, where Thomas was recorded in the 1891 census as an infant of two months. [1]

By 1901 the Ballards were living at 40 George Street, Dover, and Thomas was ten years old. He grew up in a busy port town whose daily life was shaped by maritime trade, rail connections, the Channel crossing and the presence of the Army. By the census of 1911, Thomas—then aged twenty—was living at 4 Lambton Road, Dover, and working as a carter. This practical occupation required the handling of horses, carts and goods, experience that may have made the mounted service of the cavalry a familiar and suitable choice when war came. [1]

Thomas did not marry and no children are recorded. During the war his parents’ address was given as 6 Randolph Road, Union Road, Dover. The official casualty record identifies him as their son, while a later memorial notice in the Dover Express remembered him simply and movingly as being “from all at home”. [1]

A Dover carter before the war, Thomas Ballard became a cavalry non-commissioned officer in one of the British Expeditionary Force’s longest-serving mounted regiments.

Military Service

Thomas enlisted at Dover and served in the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays), service number D/6434. He was initially recorded as a lance corporal and later held the rank of corporal. He served with A Squadron, a significant detail because cavalry regiments were organised by squadrons rather than infantry battalions and companies. His service was in the Western European Theatre from 16 August 1914 until his death in September 1916. [1]

The 2nd Dragoon Guards, widely known as the Queen’s Bays, were a Regular Army cavalry regiment. In August 1914 they were stationed at Aldershot as part of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, Cavalry Division. They moved to France with the British Expeditionary Force that month; on 16 September 1914 the Cavalry Division was redesignated the 1st Cavalry Division. The regiment therefore belonged to the small pre-war professional army that experienced the campaign from its earliest days. [1][2]

Thomas’s medal entitlement—the 1914 Star with clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal—confirms early overseas service and participation in the first months of the war. The 1914 Star clasp was awarded to eligible men who had served under fire or within range of enemy mobile artillery during the specified period, and it underlines that his service began with the initial British operations in France and Flanders. The Memorial Plaque issued following his death was sent to his next of kin as the state’s formal acknowledgement of his sacrifice. [1]

The Queen’s Bays fought throughout the war in both mounted and dismounted roles. Like other cavalry regiments, they could undertake reconnaissance, screening, patrol work and rapid movement when conditions allowed. Yet the entrenched Western Front often required cavalrymen to leave their horses behind and fight as infantry, using their training, mobility and unit cohesion wherever the front demanded. The regiment’s Great War service included the retreat from Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne, Ypres and, in 1916, the Somme. [3]

Unit Context at Time of Death

In September 1916 the Queen’s Bays were serving with 1st Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, during the Battle of the Somme. The immediate context was the Battle of Flers–Courcelette, which opened on 15 September. This was one of the major attacks of the Somme campaign and is particularly remembered for the first employment of tanks in a large British offensive. British plans also retained the hope that a sufficiently deep infantry advance might create an opportunity for cavalry to move through the German defences and exploit a breakthrough. [4][5]

The Queen’s Bays were brought forward in the Somme area as the offensive developed. A photograph held by the Imperial War Museums shows troops of the 2nd Dragoon Guards on the march near Hardecourt on 18 September 1916, approaching from the Maricourt–Montauban road. This image places the regiment directly within the rapidly changing operational landscape of the Flers–Courcelette fighting. [4]

Earlier that month, A Squadron had moved into Carnoy Valley, a forward area near the Somme battlefield. Cavalry units there had to maintain their horses, transport equipment and be ready for orders while operating under the dangers of shellfire and aerial observation that affected every formation behind the front. The regiment’s presence was therefore not ceremonial or remote from battle: its men were drawn into the offensive’s preparations, movements and casualties. [6]

Although the surviving report does not specify the exact action in which Thomas was wounded, the timing is clear. He was admitted to No. 34 Casualty Clearing Station on 15 September 1916, the opening day of Flers–Courcelette, and died the following day. He was thus among the men of the Queen’s Bays caught up in the opening phase of the renewed Somme advance. [1][4]

Thomas survived more than two years of early and continuous Western Front service, only to die of wounds during the Somme offensive of September 1916.

Circumstances of Death

Corporal Thomas John Ballard died of wounds on 16 September 1916, aged twenty-five according to the family report. He had been admitted the previous day to No. 34 Casualty Clearing Station. Casualty clearing stations were medical units positioned behind the fighting front to receive wounded men after evacuation from regimental aid posts and field ambulances. They provided urgent treatment and, where possible, prepared patients for onward movement to base hospitals. For many severely wounded men, however, they became the final stage of their military journey. [1]

No. 34 Casualty Clearing Station had been established at Grove Town, near Méaulte, in September 1916 alongside the 2/2nd London Casualty Clearing Station. The location was chosen to deal with casualties from the Somme battlefields. Thomas’s admission on 15 September and death on 16 September consequently connect his final hours directly with the medical response to the first day of the Flers–Courcelette attack. [1][7]

Nearly two decades later, the Dover Express carried the family’s remembrance: “In proud memory of Cpl. Thomas John Ballard, 2nd Dragoon Guards, Queen’s Bays, died of wounds received in action, September 16th, 1916.—From all at home.” The notice reveals that the loss remained present in Dover family memory long after the Armistice. [1]

Burial and Commemoration

Thomas was buried in Grove Town Cemetery, Méaulte, in the Somme, in grave I.C.30. The cemetery originated beside the casualty clearing stations established at Grove Town during September 1916. It is therefore both his burial place and a direct reflection of the medical system through which he passed after being wounded. [1][7]

His grave lies among the men who died during the Somme campaign and could not be saved by the medical facilities nearby. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission preserves his commemoration as Corporal Thomas John Ballard of the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays), while his service number, A Squadron association and Dover family address preserve the personal details behind the military record. [1][8]

Legacy

Thomas John Ballard’s life joined the streets of Buckland and Dover with the battlefields of the Somme. Born into a Dover family, trained in civilian life as a carter and serving as a corporal in a distinguished cavalry regiment, he represents the many Regular Army and early-war soldiers whose experience stretched from the opening movements of 1914 to the attritional offensive battles of 1916. [1][3]

His death also demonstrates the changing nature of cavalry service in the Great War. The Queen’s Bays retained their horses and their cavalry identity, but fought in an industrial conflict in which mounted formations frequently served dismounted or waited to exploit advances that infantry and artillery struggled to achieve. Thomas’s fatal wounding during the Flers–Courcelette phase of the Somme is a reminder that cavalrymen were fully exposed to the war’s dangers, whether in the saddle, on foot, in transit or under treatment behind the line. [3][4]

Remembered by his family in the Dover Express, buried at Grove Town and commemorated through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Thomas remains a named individual within the wider history of the Queen’s Bays and the Somme: a son of Richard John Ballard and Rose Ann Canavan, and a Dover man who gave his life after more than two years of service to his country. [1]

Sources and Further Reading

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Thomas John Ballard: A Cavalryman’s Journey in WWI

Early Life and Family

Military Service

Unit Context at Time of Death

Circumstances of Death

Burial and Commemoration

Legacy

Sources and Further Reading

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Early Life and Family

Military Service

Unit Context at Time of Death

Circumstances of Death

Burial and Commemoration

Legacy

Sources and Further Reading

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Discover more from Mike's Cousins

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Discover more from Mike's Cousins