Private Thomas Day was born in Walsall, England, c. 1886, and joined the British Army Reserve Forces in 1904. Day married Priscilla Anson in Chesterfield, U.K., in 1909 and they had a son, Bernard, born in Colorado, United States, in 1911. By 1912 he had found his way to Ladysmith, British Columbia.

Day rejoined the British Army with the 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment, at the European front in December 1914. In early 1916 he was transferred to the Mesopotamia campaign. At the Battle at Sheikh Sa’ad along the Tigris River (present day Iraq) he fell dangerously ill on December 10, 1916. A sudden onset of paralysis was diagnosed as transverse myelitis and he was transferred to the Victoria War Hospital in Bombay (present day Mumbai), India, where he died on January 7, 1917.

Day’s name is listed on the Ladysmith Cenotaph along with forty other soldiers who were born, lived, or worked in Ladysmith, B.C., and who died during the First World War. Seven of these soldiers, including Day, had wartime letters published by the Ladysmith Chronicle newspaper (see links below). The complete list of soldiers in the can be found in the Ladysmith and District Historical Society collection.

External links:
Pte. Day (Reg.# 9941) served as a member of the British Army; no service file information was available.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Pte. Day is commemorated on the Kirkee War Memorial in India, and on the Ladysmith Cenotaph in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
A collection of WWI soldiers' letters published in the Ladysmith Chronicle was undertaken by the Ladysmith & District Historical Society through their work with the Ladysmith Archives.