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Lest we Forget- Thomas Humphries Tickner

                 
I have an interesting connection to my Great-great Uncle Tom. Not only am I proud of his service and appreciative of his ultimate sacrifice, I had his hat. 
Thomas Humphries Pratt Tickner was born 22 Feb, 1889 in Portsmouth, England. He was my Great-Grampa Charlie's kid brother, and eventually followed Charlie to Canada, arriving in 1909. I haven't been able to find out much about his life in Canada, but am certain he must've stopped in Ontario to visit his brother Charlie and family on his way west. He settled in Edmonton, Alberta and somewhere along the way became a clerk and got married.
When he enlisted in Jan 1915, he listed his previous military service on his Attestation papers. I know that when he was a teenager in England, he was what we might today call a cadet with the 6th Hampshires for 3 years. He was also a part of the 19th Alberta Dragoons for 3 years, and then 2 years with the 103 Calgary Rifles. Since his wife's family, as well as his own parents and other siblings were still in England - many of whom worked or had worked at the very large naval dockyard at Portsmouth, it seems inevitable that he would heed the call of "For King and Country".
He enlisted as a Private, but was promoted almost immediately to Lance Corporal with the 49th Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Beyond that his service record is sadly brief. His unit sailed in June 1915, and he was killed in action on April 10, 1916 in Flanders.
He is buried at the Menin Road South Military Cemetery in Ypres (now called Ieper) in Belgium.
So back to the hat. For years we had a red serge woolen dress tunic with chain mail epaulettes and buttons stamped "19th Alberta Dragoons", and an actual brown Stetson hat, both just like a Mountie's dress uniform. I knew vaguely that there was a connection to my dad's side of the family but didn't know much more than that. It made for a great Mountie Halloween costume, both for my dad, and later for me. Just run some yellow electric tape down the side of a pair of black pants, add a handlebar Dudley Do-Right mustache, and you're good to go. Even though we used it completely irreverently, I still valued it as something historical. Something important. Until the flood. A few years back we had significant water damage in our basement, and unfortunately the tunic and hat were among the victims. A very sad ending for something that traveled far, both geographically and over time. I have no idea how it even came to be in Ontario, but perhaps Tom's wife sent some items to his brother, my great-grandfather, and the uniform was amongst them. We'll never know.
Remembering Tom Tickner, and appreciating his service and his sacrifice.
                     

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