Thomas Edward Brady
Thomas Edward Brady was born 16 November 1898 in Lindsay ON. He was the 3rd son of 9 children (4 boys, 5 girls) of Peter and Margaret Brady of 47 Huron Street, Lindsay ON. His brother Peter also served for a short time with the CEF, being sent to Siberia in 1918.
At just 16 years old, Thomas enlisted with the 21st Battalion in Kingston ON on 5 November 1914, and was presumably accepted by putting down 1896 as his birth year when it was actually 1898. In a 1915 letter written to his family while in Folkstone England, Thomas observed “there are a great number of wounded soldiers in Folkstone, where we go to spend the evenings, most of them having been the victims of the gas. Their faces turned black, and they lay in the hospitals with their chests heaving, trying to breathe. I think we will soon be sent over to go at the Germans – the sooner the better.”
He was in France by early 1916, with his record showing multiple promotions up to 1918, when he reverted to a Private at his own request. In 1916 he suffered from a bout of trench fever and just a month later was treated for a shrapnel wound received in his back during the battle of St Eloi, while part of a working party, in October 1916. After convalescing for several months, he was deemed unfit for service at the front, and was engaged for a short time as a Musketry Instructor before being assigned to the Forestry Corps in France.
On 28 September 1918 he was granted 14 days leave to the UK, and on 5 October 1918 was admitted to 2nd Scottish General Hospital, Edinburgh with severe Lobar Pneumonia. In a letter written by Chaplain Carry Blain to Thomas’ family, he notes “Your son, it seems was in London on leave and was sick while there. He came on to this place some 250 miles from London and then walked out to this hospital, some two miles or more. Whether he was sent to us by the military authorities in London, or came on here to spend part of his furlough and reported sick to the authorities here, I have not been able to learn.” On 8 October 1918, he died after falling unconscious at the United States Navy Hospital No 3 Seafield in Edinburgh Scotland.
Thomas Edward Brady is buried in Edinburgh (Seafield) Cemetery, Edinburgh Scotland. He was 20 years old.
