Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | September 14, 1891 |
Place of Birth | RM of Springfield, Manitoba |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Annie Iliff, mother, Hazelridge, Manitoba |
Trade / Calling | Fireman, CPR |
Religion | Presbyterian |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 2125284 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | No 13 Canadian Light Railway Operating Company |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Railway Troops |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Address at Enlistment | YMCA, Kenora, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | March 12, 1917 |
Age at Enlistment | 25 |
Theatre of Service | Europe |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | No |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | March 28, 1918 |
Age at Death | 26 |
Buried At | Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France |
Plot | III. D. 4. |
Thomas Charles Iliff was born on 14 September 1891 in the RM of Springfield, Selkirk, Manitoba. First born child, his parents Powers Cowley Iliff, who had arrived in Canada from Wales aboard the Circassian 29 June 1885, and Ann Matheson, daughter of William and Christiana Matheson of Springfield, had married in Springfield on 15 October 1890. The family farmed in the area of the rural community of Hazelridge in the RM of Springfield and by the 1901 Canada census the household had grown to include Powers and Ann, and children Thomas, age 9, Christiana, age 7, William, age 4, and Alexander, age 1. By the 1906 Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta census, another child had been born to the family, John Owen Houghton Iliff. Later that year Morrison was born but died at only age 6 months on 18 January 1907. The family continued to farm, with no changes for the 1911 Canada census.
Although Thomas enlisted in Winnipeg, he had been working as a fireman for the Canadian Pacific Railway in Kenora, Ontario. Signing his attestation papers on 12 March 1917 with the No 2 Section of Skilled Railway Employees, he left Canada for overseas aboard the Grampian on 18 April. Renamed the No 13 Light Railway Operating Company, Royal Engineers in May 1917, they left Aldershot, arriving in France on 10 June. In November of 1917 it was once again renamed to No 13 Canadian Light Railway Operating Company.
Just a few days over a year from his enlistment, Sapper Thomas Charles Iliff died on 28 March 1918. From the CEF burial register for Thomas: ‘Died of Wounds’ (Gunshot Wounds Thigh and Left Wrist) at No. 42 Casualty Clearing Station. He had been admitted to the station two days earlier. No 13 LROC lost very few casualties, with only 17 listed on the canadaatwar.ca/memorial, half of them for around the time Thomas died. Thomas is interred in the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France.
Thomas’ brother William signed his recruitment papers in Winnipeg on 9 January 1918. Once overseas he became ill and while at the No 11 Canadian General Hospital in Shorncliffe, Kent, England, he died of kidney failure on 16 March 1918. The family lost two sons within days of each other during that one terrible month.
Sapper Thomas Iliff is commemorated on page 434 of the First World War Book of Remembrance in Ottawa, on the Kenora Cenotaph, on the Kenora Legion War Memorial, and on the Canadian Pacific Railway Roll of Honour.
by Judy Stockham
Thomas’ grave marker photograph by Military Historian, findagrave.com.