b. 30/08/1869 Swinnerton Park, Staffordshire. d. 20/09/1937 Staffordshire.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 10/07/1916 Cupar, Fife, Scotland.
Thomas C Fitzherbert AM
The Hon. Thomas Charles Fitzherbert was the 4th son of 9 children born to Basil Thomas Fitzherbert and Emily Charlotte Stafford-Jerningham. His mother died when he was 12 in 1881, and whilst he was a student at Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. He gained the rank of Captain in the Lancashire Hussars, and served in the Boer War between 1900-1902. On 21 November 1913 he was granted the rank of a baron’s younger son. He was awarded the Albert Medal in 1916. He married Helen Beryl Frances Waters, daughter of John Michael Waters, on 30 April 1925. They had two children, Basil Francis Nicholas (later 14th Baron Stafford) and Lt Evelyn Thomas Francis Ralph. Evelyn died in a drowning accident in 1952, aged just 23.
AM CITATION:
On the 10th July, 1916, an instructional party was throwing live bombs from separate pits. A volley was ordered. All the bombs were thrown successfully except one, which hit the parapet and stuck in the mud. For three or four seconds the accident was unnoticed, as everyone was watching the bombs in the air, and the man. who threw ‘the bomb was too frightened to call out or to move. Suddenly Captain Fitzherbert noticed .smoke issuing from the parapet and saw the bomb. He might have placed himself in safety by throwing himself on the bottom of his pit; but seeing that the man would be exposed to the full force of the explosion, he picked the bomb out of the mud and threw it clear just as it exploded. By has courage and presence of mind he undoubtedly saved the man’s life, while risking his own.
BURIAL LOCATION: CATHOLIC CHAPEL, SWYNNERTON HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE.
FAMILY PLOT.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD.
