Updated Post - T T Rodda

I was extremely pleased last week to be contacted by the grandson of Thomas Tregilgus Rodda.  I had been rather frustrated by my post about Thomas; the question of his death was not satisfactorily answered.  His grandson has cleared the mystery up and it's quite remarkable.  Click on the link to find the updated T T Rodda post.

T T Rodda

Thomas Tregilgus Rodda

Born 1872 in Newquay  Killed in Action 26 March 1917 Dunkirk?

Pte SS14208 Royal Army Service Corps

Thomas was born in Newquay around 1872.  His father was Nicholas John Rodda, a stone mason, and his mother was Jane Tregildous.  Nicholas was a brother of Richard Thomas Rodda, father of William Rodda.  Hence, Thomas and William were first cousins, despite a great disparity in age.  Nicholas and Richard were the sons of stone mason Henry Rodda and his wife Betsy, and both were born in St Blazey.  

Thomas, like his father and grandfather, became a stone mason later in life.  However, in 1891 at age 19 he was living at the Cornwood Inn in Devon, working as a carter.  Thomas married Ellen Mewton, a domestic servant, in 1895.  Ellen's parents, George and Elizabeth, were both Cornish, but several of their children, including Ellen, were born in Yorkshire.

Thomas and Ellen were living in Woodman's Tenement in Ladock, where Thomas made a living as a mason, when their first child Florence was born in 1896.  Thomas Charles was born in 1897, Claude Glencoe was born in 1901 but died the following year.  Other children were Clarence Wilfred (1902), Ernest George (1905), Ellen Iris Elizabeth (1912), Catherine Phylis Joan (1914) and Robert Frederick (1916).  Ernest was born in Newquay, so presumably the family moved into the town between 1902 and 1905.

When war broke out both Thomas and his son Thomas Charles, joined up.  Thomas Charles Rodda enlisted with the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.  Thomas Senior joined the Army Service Corps.  Once would have thought that Thomas Senior had the safer option; the 1st Cornwalls were in the thick of many battles of the war, but in fact it was the son who survived the war.  I cannot find out how Thomas died, although it was "in action".  He is buried at Dunkirk Town Cemetery.

Although Thomas Charles Rodda survived the war he died at a relatively young age in 1936.  His mother, Ellen, died in 1944.


UPDATE (23 August 2011):

I have been contacted by Thomas Rodda's grandson, Alan, who has solved the mystery of how Thomas died - it seemed very strange to me that Thomas was "killed in action" when he was away from the front line in Dunkirk.  The solution to the mystery is itself strange.  Thomas was asleep in a tent when an enemy aircraft dropped a bomb which fell through the tent and landed on Thomas.  Although the impact of the bomb killed Thomas, it did not explode and the two men on either side of Thomas were unharmed.

Mrs Rodda was left with seven children, three under the age of five.  Alan makes the point that she was herself a hero for bringing them up single-handed.

W Rodda

William Rodda

Baptised 10 June 1891, Born at Newquay  Died 20 April 1917

Pte 24515 1st Battalion Duke of Conrwall's Light Infantry

William was the only son of Richard Thomas Rodda (sometimes spelt Rhodda) and Mary Ann Eliza Whitford.  Richard and Mary Ann married in Newquay on 12 May 1883.  Richard, a tailor from St Blazey, was the son a mason, William Rodda.  Mary Ann's father was John Whitford, a coastguard from Devon.  

The couple had a daughter, Theresa Ann, in 1885, followed by another daughter, Mattie Eliza in 1889.  William was born in 1891 and another daughter, Mary Elizabeth (known as Polly) was born in 1894.  Shortly after Polly's birth Mary Ann died and Richard remarried the following year.  His new wife was a widow, Margaret Mitchell (she died in 1905).  By 1901 only William and Polly were at home with their father and in 1911 both of them were working as servants for the Bennetts family at Trewerry Mill near St Newlyn East; William was labouring on the farm, Polly was a general domestic servant.  

At the moment I have no information as to when William enlisted.  His Medal Index Card gives no clues either, being blank on the section giving date on which the soldier first entered the Theatre of War.  What is certain is that William died on 20 April 1917 of wounds.  The 1st Cornwalls (95th Brigade, 5th Division) had moved to Villers au Bois on the morning of 8 April.  On the following day the weather was atrocious, with heavy rain and winds and a snow storm.  The battalion was held on two hours' notice to move forward, though no specific objective was specified.  By 10 pm further orders were received putting them on one hour's notice to move off and support the 4th Canadian Division at Vimy Ridge.  The order to move did not arrive until 13 April.  In the meantime the Cornwalls attempted to train whilst they waited and endured what must have been a miserable time as they had been moved from their billets into tents and it was by this time snowing heavily.

The Cornwalls finally relieved the 46th and 50th Canadian Regiments on the afternoon of 13 April at which point they took over the front line, during the Battle of Vimy.  1st Battlion had to move in darkness and many became lost.  Once in position the Cornwalls were shelled by the Germans (casualties were apparently light though - perhaps William was one of them?).  The DCLI managed to capture a couple of German guns on 14 April, although they still had to endure machine gun fire from other positions.  The diary does not mention casualties.

If William was not wounded during the Battle of Vimy, he may have received his wounds a few days later.  The Cornwalls remained in the front line from 14 to 19 April and during this period the Germans were particularly active, shelling, sniping and machine gunning the DCLI positions.  Any patrols sent out to scout enemy positions were met with fierce opposition.  Only one casualty of these forays is mentioned; Second Lieutenant the Hon. Charles Willoughby Murray Molesworth, who died of wounds on 15 April, but there were no doubt other ranks who died too - again, perhaps William.  William was buried at the Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension.  

William's sister, Polly Rodda, married a Burt in 1921 and lived until 1971.