Thomas George Mayes

Private - Service No. RME/8182/S - Royal Marine Engineers

Thomas George Mayes, the son of Matthew Mayes and his wife Jane (Everett), was born in 1872 at Cranworth, Norfolk. He was the youngest of Matthew and Jane's eight children, James (1856), James (1858), Joanna (1860), Harriet (1862), John (1864), Martha (1867) and Matthew (1869). Their first son, James Richard Mayes, died at less than eighteen months so, when their second son was born just six months later, they christened him James Everett Mayes. Matthew and Jane had been married on 29th March 1855 in East Dereham, Matthew's home town, and settled by Toftwood Common where their first five children were born. About 1866 the family moved to Cranworth and then on to Beetley where Jane died in 1900 at the age of 65 and Matthew in 1908, aged 76.

Thomas was educated at Beetley and, when he left school, followed his father and brothers working on the land. On 26th November 1904 Thomas married Susannah Rebecca Elizabeth Doughty, daughter of William John Doughty and his wife Ann (Anderson), at Sprowston, Norwich. A few months after their marriage Thomas and Susannah's first daughter, Edith Maude Mayes, was born at Sprowston and it would seem that about the same time Thomas decided on a change of occupation and became a groom. He secured a position with Walter Somerville Gurney at Mangreen Hall and the family moved to a cottage near the Hall. Here the family expanded with the arrival of daughters Annie (1907) and Hilda Ivy (1909), they also had Susannah's widowed mother, Ann, living with them, William Doughty having died in 1902. Tragically, just after her fifth birthday, Hilda Ivy Mayes died and was buried at Swardeston on 9th December 1914.

Unfortunately, virtually all records of Thomas' time in the Royal Marine Engineers have been lost so we have no idea at this time when or where he served or what medals, if any, he was awarded. The one record we have discovered gives his Name and Service Number as above but no more.

The family stayed at Mangreen after the war, Thomas dying in 1949 at the age of 77 and Susannah in 1954 at the age of 80. Daughter Edith died in Norwich in 1991, at the age of 86, without having married. Daughter Annie probably married and died, as Annie Howard, in 1992 but this cannot yet be proven to be "our Annie".

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