9th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army)
Date Of Birth:
29/02/1896
Died:
01/07/1916 (Killed in Action)
Age:
20
Summary
Thomas Gault was the eldest son of James and Mary Gault. He was born on 29th February 1896 in Clogher. He was one of eight children, seven surviving. The family lived in the Clogher area. Lance Corporal Thomas Gault was serving with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on Saturday 1st July 1916.
Further Information
Thomas Gault was the eldest son of James and Mary Gault. Thomas Gault married Mary Hunter on 3rd June 1895 in the district of Dungannon.
Thomas was born on 29th February 1896 in Clogher. He was one of eight children, seven surviving.
The 1901 census record the family living at Ballycoholan, Cullamore, Tyrone. Thomas was 5 years old. His father was a labourer.
Family: James Gault, Mary Jane Gault, Thomas Gault (born 29th February 1896), Samuel Gault (born 20th March 1897), Elizabeth Jane Gault (born 6th December 1899), James Gault (born 26th January 1902), William Gault (born 31st August 1904, died 1st September 1904), Mary Gault (born 16th February 1906), William Gault (born 9th July 1909), Beatrice Gault (born 23rd November 1912).
By 1911, Thomas was a 15 year old labourer. He was one of six surviving children. They were living in Corick, Cloghan, County Tyrone.
Thomas Gault enlisted in Clogher.
Private Thomas Gault arrived in France with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 5th October 1915.
Lance Corporal Thomas Gault was serving with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on Saturday 1st July 1916.
From the Belfast Newsletter dated 1st October 1917:
Lance Corporal T Gault, son of Mr James Gault, Clogher Park, missing on 1st July 1916, now returned as killed on that date.
Lance Corporal Thomas Gault has no known grave and commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.
Lance Corporal Thomas Gault is commemorated locally on Clogher War Memorial and on the WWI tablet in St Macartan's Cathedral in Clogher.
The CWGC record Lance Corporal Thomas Gault as the son of James and Mary Gault, of Clogher Park, Clogher, County Tyrone
