Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Defence of Antwerp was an action which occured 4th-10th October 1914. As the German Army swept through Belgium in August and September 1914 it detached part of its resources to take the important city and port of Antwerp. Whilst its capture was not essential to the success of the Schlieffen Plan it did need to be first covered then taken, particularly as the front moved further north into Flanders. The city, ringed with massive fortifications held out against the German guns and it was decided to send the Royal Naval Division, basically sailors fighting as soldiers, to assist. In the event they were not able to prevent the fall of the city and had to embark on a forced march to evade capture. Many were interned in neutral Holland.

Detail :

Thomas YORK was one of the Royal Naval contingent sent to defend Antwerp which was besieged by the Germans. Whilst putting up a spirited defence the situation was untenable and the overwhelming superiority in numbers, and more importantly in siege artillery, enjoyed by the Germans made the fall of Antwerp inevitable. The evacuation of the British troops involved an attempt to break out of Antwerp and move down the coast towards the Channel Ports. In the event this proved impossible and most of the men headed for The Netherlands which was a neutral state. There they assumed that they would be repatriated to the UK, however that was not what happened and most of them remained incarcerated for the duration of the war. Some casualties were sustained whilst trying to break out from Antwerp and Thomas York is buried Schoonselhof (Antwerp) Military Cemetery. So far we have identified 4 Brethren who fell in the defence of Antwerp and its immediate aftermath; AMOS, CHURCHARD, YORK and HANSON (who was executed by the Germans). At present we have been unable to find any substantial information on Brother Thomas YORK beyond that offered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Often this is because the Masonic source data is questionable or there is insufficient information to correctly identify the Brother from several casualties with the same name. Any information would be appreciated. Please contact the team if you can help. We do know that he was the holder of the Naval Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and that he served in the South African Campaign and Boxer Rebellion (1900).

Masonic :

Joined Lodge of Hope from United Services Lodge 1341, Hong Kong on 17th December 1902.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley