Thomas Edgeley Barclay

Forename(s):
Thomas Edgeley

Surname:
Barclay

Initial(s):
T E

Service Number:
29112

Rank:
Private

Regiment:
Northumberland Fusiliers, 1/7th Battalion Territorial Force

Died:
14/11/1916

Aged:
30

Buried:
Warlencourt British Cemetery

Service History:
Enlisted Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland.

Background:
Born in 1887 at Glanton, Northumberland, the eldest child of George Patterson Barclay (b.1859 in Scotland; a Master Cutter Tailor) & his wife Margaret (b.1858 in Northumberland; a Milliner who ran a small Hat Shop at Glanton with her sister).

Barclay had five younger siblings: Kate (b. 1888; who became a teacher); George (b.1890; died as an infant); May (who married a Canadian & emigrated to British Columbia); Charlie (Romaine Barclay-Kim's father; who fought in WW1); & Jack.

Husband of Jane Eleanor Barclay (née Hume; b.1881 at Snitter, near Rothbury, Northumberland). They were married in 1908.

In 1911, Barclay was a Mason, & with Jane they were living at The Lane, Glanton with their two children, Joseph (b.1909) & Eileen (b.1910). Both children were born at Glanton.

A third son, George Frederick, was born in April 1911 but died, age 19 months, on 14 November 1912.

The family were living in Front Street, Glanton at the time of BarclayÂ’s death. They had an inscription added to his headstone: 'Only goodnight beloved, not farewell'.

His great niece, Romaine Barclay-Kim, has penned a few short poems written in a traditional Japanese style (Haiku):

'Panic arises,
as we near the battlefields,
unknown memory.'

When she visited the 'Trenches of the Dead' at Diksmuide, Belgium:

'Against a blue sky
poppies flutter carelessly
high above our heads.
I stand within the shadows of
sandbags hardened to grey rock
& understand the meaning
of entrenched.'

On a visit to Tyne Cot CWGC Cemetery:

'Bedazzled by now
upon row of white gravestones
youth of the Empire.
Red upon the white
schoolboys leave their offering
for their own long gone.'

Touring the battlefields, Romaine was moved to pen a Haiku on some of the farmhouses she saw:

'Walk round to the rear
of small farmhouses to find
the harvest of the dead.
Carefully tended
these gardens of remembrance
recall where men fell.'

Although short, the simplicity of the following Haiku describes Romaine's experience visiting her great uncle's grave:

'Glanton soil is poured
On Tom's grave at Warlencourt.
Tears fall for the past.'

Her final thought on her last visit to the Western Front:

'What sorrow & waste!
Oh! The pity of it all
for generations.'

Local Memorial:
Whittingham, Roll of Honour in St. BartholomewÂ’s Church Whittingham & Callaly 1914-1918 Memorial Stone Glanton, Presbyterian Church Roll of Honour Glanton, United Reform Church (Source: For Glanton URC, newmp.org.uk)