Private Thomas Richard Worth
23rd Battery, Machine Gun Corps (Motor) (MGC(M)), 84232
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: Quarter 2 1884
Place of Birth: Stokeinteignhead, Devon
Date of Death: 29th June 1918 aged 34
Buried: Barenthal Military Cemetery, Asiago, Provincia di Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. Plot 3. Row C. Grave 3. Memorial ID 12069882
Awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Private Thomas Richard Worth was born in the 2nd quarter of 1884 in Stokeinteignhead, Devon and was baptised in Stokeinteignhead on the 11th April 1884.
His mother, Ellen Lucy Kate Worth née Ball (1854-1911) was born in Tavistock, Devon, she was the Daughter of Elizabeth and Richard (a blacksmith).
Thomas's father, George Worth (1849-1936) was born in Countisbury, Devon, he was the son of Mary and Thomas (an agricultural labourer).
In 1901, Thomas, his parents and some of his siblings were living in Maidencombe, Stokeinteignhead. Thomas and his father were working as live-in Gardeners.
| Thomas and his siblings | |
| Ellen Elizabeth Mary Herd née Worth 1878–1956 |
George Ernest Worth 1880– |
| Annie Maria Worth 1881–1971 |
Private Thomas Richard Worth 1884–1918 |
| Charles Guy Worth 1886–1894 |
Frederick William Worth 1891–1986 |
| Avis Ella Cook née Worth 1895–1970 |
|
Machine Gun Corps (Motor)
Cap Badge
Devonshire Regimentcap badge
On the 26th December 1907, Thomas married Edith Mary Venning at the parish church, St. Marychurch.
On December 10th, 1915 Thomas attested at Torquay, he enlisted for the duration of the war.
His address at the time was Langley Lodge Maidencombe. His record shows him as 31 years and nine months old, working as a Groom/Gardener and 5 feet four inches tall with a girth of 37 1/2 inches.
Motor machine gun. gunners feeding a new ammunition belt into a gun. Dieval, 22 June 1918. © IWM (Q 9001)
Thomas was mobilised on November 20th 1916 and posted to the 3rd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment (service number 46817) until February 3rd 1917 when he joined the Machine Gun Corps (service number 84232).
He went to France with them on September 4th 1917 and was killed in action on the Italian Front on June 29th, 1918.
Thomas is buried at Barenthal Military Cemetery, Asiago, Provincia di Vicenza, Veneto, Italy.
Thomas's memorial stone in Italy
Download commemorative certificate (PDF)
Machine Gun Corps Battery
The Motor Machine Gun Service (MMGS) was a unit of the British Army in the First World War, consisting of batteries of motorcycle/sidecar combinations carrying Vickers machine guns. It was formed in 1914 and incorporated into the Machine Gun Corps in October 1915 as the Machine Gun Corps (Motors).
Each battery consisted of 18 motorcycle/sidecar combinations, carrying six Vickers machine guns, ammunition and spare parts, eight motorcycles without sidecars, and two or three cars or trucks.
