Thomas Pepler was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in December 1885. The third of six children, he was the oldest son to Henry and Rosa. Both of Thomas’ parents were wool spinners, and the family grew up on Holbrook Lane, to the south of the town centre.
When he completed his schooling, Thomas found work in an iron foundry. By the autumn of 1906, he had moved to South Wales, and it was here, in Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, where he met and married Emma (or Emily) Draper. The couple went on to have four children: Rosina, Thomas, Frances and Phyllis.
By 1911, Thomas had moved the family back to Trowbridge, and had set up home at 10 Sylverthorn’s Yard, off Duke Street, to the east of the town centre. Thomas was the only breadwinner, and is recorded as being a labourer in a trellis works.
War was on the horizon by this point, and Thomas would step up and play his part. On 8th May 1915, he gave up his work (then as a rubber worker) and enlisted as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. While his service papers are incomplete, they do show that he was 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall when he joined up.
Private Pepler spent the next three years supporting medical teams at field ambulances and hospitals in France. Unfortunately, however, he was not to be immune to the illnesses of the patients he was helping. At the start of 1918, he was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment for bronchitis, spending more than four months in hospitals in Norfolk.
As winter came round once more, Thomas was admitted to hospital again. He had contracted influenza, and was given treatment at a hospital in Lincoln. Private Pepler’s body would ultimately succumb this time around, however, and he passed away on 8th November 1918 – just three days before the Armistice. He was 32 years of age.
A heavy bereavement has befallen Mrs Tom Pepler, 20, Dursley Road, and her four little children, in the death of her husband, Pte. Tom Pepler, RAMC, at the age of 32.
Pte. Pepler was… a rubber worker employed at Bradford, and joined the Army in May 1915, and after seeing service in France he was invalided home and did duty at a Red Cross Hospital in Lincolnshire, where his death occurred on Friday from bronchitis.
[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 16th November 1918]
The body of Thomas Pepler was laid to rest in Trowbridge Cemetery, a short walk from where his family were living.
