Thomas Kusel Sursham was born in 1893; his parents were Frederick Thomas Sursham and Matilda Kusel. Thomas had one older sister, Nellie, who was born in 1887. Thomas lived with his family at 82 Dudley Road, Ilford, and by 1911 he was working as a clerk in the City of London. He had been a choirboy with St. Alban’s church, Ilford and also a member of the Naval Brigade.
Shortly after war broke out, Thomas volunteered with the 1/7th Battalion, the London Regiment where he served as a Lance Corporal.
Thomas’s personal papers, in the collections of the Imperial War Museum, include: letters describing training exercises near Watford in Hertfordshire, mention of Army life and Christmas celebrations, as well as conditions for himself and civilians on the Western Front after his battalion crossed to France (March 1915). There are also eight photographs and his pocket diary for 1915 with entries from February to September covering training in Hertfordshire and conditions in the trenches near Bethune and during the Battle of Festubert, together with a notebook, a sketchbook with delightful drawings of rural and Army life in France.
Finally, the collection contains papers relating to his death in action on the first day of the Battle of Loos (25th September 1915), the bloodiest day of the war at that date, with 10,292 deaths. Papers include tributes from three of his comrades and commemorative scrolls, newspaper cuttings and printed items covering his battalion's war service and casualties.
Thomas is remembered at the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, London, where on the back of the quire stall next to the rector’s stall is a bronze tablet inscribed: Thomas Kusel Sursham server of this church killed in action in France Sep. 25th, 1915 / 'Greater love hath no man than this'. He is also remembered on the Loos Memorial, Belgium.
Research by Redbridge Museum
Sources:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Ancestry.com
iwm.org.uk/collections (Imperial War Museums): Private Papers of T K Sursham, Catalogue Number Documents.17486
iwm.org.uk/collections (Imperial War Museums): Next of Kin Memorial Plaque, Catalogue Number OMD 8050
londonwarmemorial.co.uk: Profile Page of Thomas Kusel Sursham