|
a.
|
Note: Joined the Territorials in Snodland and welcomed into A Company, 4th Battalion, QORWKs in Queen's Own Gazette March 1937 edition - under age. According to Roy Coster 22/07/2004, Uncle Tom joined the army as a cook. I believe but I cannot confirm it was the Royal West Kents. He was wounded by shrapnel towards the end of the war and was treated for a wound in the neck by Dr Dowling who was a Snodland GP serving with the same regiment as a MO. He considered that part of the shrapnel was too near the jugular veon to remove and left it in. After the war, Uncle Tom worked as a Chef first in hotels and then on the P & O Liners to Australia based in Tilbury. Shortly before his death he worked as a crane driver at Townsend and Hooks Paper Mill in Snodland. One evening the shrapnel in his neck moved and cut the vein causing him to bleed to death. He was attended by the same Dr Dowling who had treated him when he was wounded. According to my mother (Kathleen Rose Coster nee Preston), Dr Dowling said Aunt Gladys would be entitled to a War Widows Pension but we have no idea if she got one. Tom had been wounded in the neck in WWII and some of it had not been removed. Just prior to his death this moved and severely complicated his condition - Roy Coster
1950 Snodland Electoral Roll. Shown as living at 4 Simmons Cottages, Constitution Hill with his wife. 1951 20/11/51 Burham (otherside of Medway from Snodland) Electoral Roll living at Shant Cottage, Burham. 1952 Electoral Roll. Shown as moving back into 29 Constitution Hill, Snodland after death of his father.
|
