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2^nd Lieutenant
THOMAS FULLER STOCKER
Royal Engineers 

by 

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, BSAE, P.E., MinstRE
(July 2025)

Figure 1. 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker, R.E.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum) 

1.  INTRODUCTION 

            Thomas Fuller Stocker’s story is another sad tale of a man who did not survive very long after arriving in France during the Great War of 1914-1918.  His time there was just about 60 days before a German sniper took his life.  His family’s story during the Great War is also one of tragedy.  His younger brother, aged 18, was killed while flying a bombing mission in France just eight months before the war ended.  The war took both sons of Major Edward Gaved Stocker, Royal Army Medical Corps, who also served during the Great War. 

2.  FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

Family Information

            Thomas Fuller Stocker was born in Weedon, Northamptonshire on 12 March 1895, the son of then Doctor Edward Gaved Stocker (1862-1938) and Ethel Annie Stocker, née Fuller (1864-1929).  The Stocker’s other children were Edward Cuthbert Stocker (1899-1918) and Ethel Gwendolin Stocker.[1] 

Early Life

In 1901 the Stocker family was living in the Cotswold House, in Clevedon, Somerset.  During Thomas’s early years his father became active in the Volunteer Force of the Army.  On 21 May 1902 Dr. Stocker decided to lend his healing skills to the Army and was appointed a Surgeon-Lieutenant in the 1^st Devonshire and Somersetshire Royal Engineers (Volunteers).[2]  On 12 July 1905 Dr. Stocker was promoted to the rank of Captain-Surgeon[3] and was transferred to the 2^nd Wessex Field Company, Wessex Divisional Engineers.[4]  In this capacity he served as a surgeon to a company-sized unit.  Then on 10 July 1910 Captain-Surgeon Stocker’s duties were transferred from the 2^nd Wessex Field Company to the Wessex Division Engineers; that is, his responsibilities were increased to oversee medical services for all the engineer units in the division.[5]  He was promoted to the rank of Surgeon-Major on 12 January 1914.[6]  Under Lord Kitchener’s plan to increase the size of the Army after war broke out in 1914, the Wessex Division would become the 27^th Division. 

            In 1911 young Thomas was attending Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devonshire.[7]  At Blundell’s School he was a member of the Officer Training Corps.  After Blundell’s School he continued his education at London and Bristol Universities and the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall.  At this latter institution he received first class certificates and two bronze medals and was twice first in all England Surveying.[8]  His studies at the Camborne School of Mines would be instrumental in the posting that he would receive once he joined the Army. 

            While Thomas was busy with his studies, his brother Edward was studying at Eastington School in Clevedon and then Channel View School in Walton Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.[9] 

            After leaving the Camborne School of Mines in early 1914, Thomas took a position with the West of England China Clay and Stone Company in St. Austell, Cornwall.[10]  What his duties were with this firm are unknown, but the company was primarily involved with the extraction of china clay from a quarry somewhere in Cornwall.  Thomas’s geological studies at the Camborne School of Mines certainly aided him in getting a position with this firm.  These studies also would be instrumental in his future assignment in the Army. 

In August 1914 after the outbreak of the war, Thomas enlisted as a Sapper, Regimental Number 936, in the 1^st Wessex Field Company, (later renamed the 500^th Field Company) Royal Engineers, Territorial Force.  This company formed part of the divisional engineers of the 27^th Division.  The other units of the Royal Engineers in the 27^th Division included:[11]

2^nd (Wessex) Field Company ( later renamed the 501^st Field Company)

1^st (South Midland) Field Company (left the division in March 1915)

17^th Field Company (joined from 5^th Division on 26 March 1915)

In November 1914 Thomas received a rapid promotion to the rank of Lance Corporal and on 22 December 1914 he and his company were on their way to France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). 

3.  COMMISSIONING AND TRAINING 

Commissioning 

            In March 1915 the 171^st Tunnelling Company was formed from a small number of specially enlisted miners and with troops selected from the Monmouthshire Siege Company, R.E.  The companies first employment was in the Hill 60/Bluff areas at Ypres.[12] 

            On 7 April 1915 Stocker was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers and was posted to the newly formed 171^st Tunnelling Company.  Although he had never been a miner, it appears that his education at the Camborne School of Mines and his work at the clay company attracted the attention of a senior tunnelling officer; hence, Stocker was offered a commission from the ranks. 

Training 

            Given the time line between his civil work, his enlistment as a Sapper in the R.E. and the date of his commission, it would appear that Stocker received a minimum of military training.  His rapid promotion to Lance Corporal while serving in the ranks indicates that he was a hard-working soldier and his civil education made him suitable for service in a tunnelling company without any further training.  Lack of military training was common among many of the men selected to fill the ranks of the newly-formed tunnelling companies, both officers and other ranks.        

4.  POSTINGS AND CAMPAIGN SERVICE

The 171st Tunnelling Company was employed in the Hill 60/Bluff areas at Ypres when 2^nd Lieutenant Stocker joined the unit. The Germans held the top of Hill 60 from 16 December 1914 to 17 April 1915, when it was captured briefly by the British 5th Division after the explosion of five mines under the German lines by the Royal Engineers.  

According to the Imperial War Museum web site, 2^nd Lieutenant Stocker was shot through the heart by a German sniper at Sanctuary Wood in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium on 19 May 1915. He was 20 years old when he was killed.  There were times when tunnelling companies were used in the role of field companies to support military operations on the front line.  The fact that Stocker was killed by a sniper would seem to indicate that he may have been performing duties of this type at the time of his death.  As tunnelling work involved work below ground for the most part, it is unlikely that a sniper would have shot him if he were in a trench, a sap or a tunnel below ground level. 

Captain Edward W. Wellesley, R.E.[13], an officer in the 171^st Tunnelling Company,  wrote to Stocker’s father to say: 

“I was grieved to hear this evening of your son’s death in the trenches.  He was so full of interest and enjoyment in his work, and I could not have wished for a better Subaltern.  He was always ready to do everything to help me, and was, I know, most popular with the men under him.” 

2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker was buried in the Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, Section I, Row D, Grave 8.[14]

Probate of Thomas’s Will took place in London on 8 July 1915. His effects were left to his mother, Ethyl Fuller Stocker, attorney of Edward Gaved Stocker, in the amount of £1100-11s-6d (about $142,345 US in 2025 currency).

5. MEDALS, AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

            For his service during the Great War 2^nd Lieutenant Stocker was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal as shown left to right in Figure 2 below. 

Figure 4.  The Medal Index Card of 2^nd Lieutenant T.F. Stocker, R.E
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

            Thomas’s father applied to the War Office for the 1914-15 Star on behalf of his deceased son on 3 January 1919.  The medals were sent to him on 21 April 1921.  At the time, Major Stocker was residing at “Calartha” in St. Austell, Cornwall.  Oddly, Thomas Stocker appears on the medal roll for the 1914-15 Star as 936 Lance Corporal T.F. Stocker and on the British War Medal and Victory Medal Roll he appears as 936 Sapper Thomas F. Stocker.  One wonders how his medals were actually named and why they would not have been named to him as a 2^nd Lieutenant, R.E. 

In addition to his medals Major Stocker would have received the bronze Memorial Plaque, shown in Figure 3 above, to commemorate his son’s death during the war. 

NOTE:  The medals and plaque shown above are not those of 2^nd Lieutenant Stocker.  They are presented here for illustrative purposes only.

Major
EDWARD GAVED STOCKER
Royal Army Medical Corps 

Civil Service 

            The following are Major Stocker’s medical credentials, associations and publications, according to the U.K. Medical Directory, 1845-1942, during his long and illustrious medical career: 

·         Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (L.R.C.P.): 1889. 

·         Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS): 1889. 

·         Scholarship in Science at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. 

·         Honorary Life Member and Examiner of the St. John Ambulance Association. 

·         Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health. 

·         Member of the Royal Institute of Cornwall. 

·         Member of the British Medical Association. 

·         Former Senior Hospital Physician of the West London Hospital. 

·         Surgeon in the West Cornwall Miners’ Hospital. 

·         Surgeon in the Hospital for Women and Children, Redruth, Cornwall. 

·         Co-author (with Doctor P. Watson-Williams) of Case of Cerebro-Spinal Rhinorrhea in the British Medical Journal, 1901.

Military Service

As indicated in his son’s narrative, Dr. Stocker served as a military surgeon in the 1^st Devonshire and Somersetshire Royal Engineers (Volunteers) from 1902 to 1908 and then in the Wessex Divisional Engineers from 1910 to 1914.  In 1912 the Wessex Royal Engineers (Territorial Force) was stationed at The Drill Hall on Upper Bristol Road in Bath, Somerset under the Commander Royal Engineers (CRE) of the Wessex Division, Lieutenant Colonel S. Keen, TD.[15]  The Adjutant of the unit was Captain R.G. Ponsonby, R.E.[16]

By 1914 the Wessex Division Royal Engineers had been expanded to two companies.[17]  The 1^st Wessex Field Company was located in Bath with the divisional headquarters.  It was under the command of Major R.B. Dutton, R.E.[18]  The drill hall of the 2^nd Wessex Field Company was located on Churchill Road in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset under the command of Major P.G. Fry, R.E.[19]  Captain Ponsonby had left the division by this time and had been replaced by Captain L.C. Maurice, R.E. as Adjutant.[20]  Maurice was subsequently replaced by Captain H.H. Armstrong, R.E. early in 1915.[21]

During the Great War Dr. Stocker was the Medical Officer for the 27^th (Wessex) Division Royal Engineers from 1914 to 1915.[22]  The division had been formed on Salisbury Plain during the period 26-30 July 1914 and had undergone training in Devonshire from 31 July to 19 November 1914.  During the period 19-21 December 1914 units of the division embarked at Southampton for duty in France.[23] 

Surgeon-Major Stocker disembarked with the divisional engineers at Le Havre on 22 December 1914[24] and by Christmas Day was located in the Aire-Arques area. 

During 1915 he was with the division while it took part in the following actions:[25]

·         The Battle of St. Eloie, 14-15 March  

·         The Battle of Ypres, 22 April – 25 May

It was during this battle that Surgeon-Major Stocker’s son Thomas was killed in action at Sanctuary Wood.  Surgeon-Major Stocker was probably at or near Ypres when Thomas was killed.  The distance to Sanctuary Wood from Ypres is about 9 kilometers, so the doctor may have been able to see his son before he was buried. 

·         The Battle of Gravenstafel, 22-23 April  

·         The Battle of St. Julien, 24 April – 4 May
 

·         The Battle of Frezenberg, 8-13 May
 

·         The Battle of Bellewaarde, 24-25 May

On 15 November 1915 the 27^th Division was at Marseille, having received orders to deploy to Macedonia.  The division embarked at Marseille  on 17 November, but it appears that Stocker did not proceed to Macedonia with the division.  Instead, he was posted to duties in the U.K. to oversee the operations of a number of base hospitals.[26]

On 1 January 1916 Surgeon-Major E.G. Stocker, Wessex Divisional Engineers, Royal Engineers, Territorial Force was Mentioned in the Despatches of Field Marshal Sir John French.  On 14 April 1916 he was redesignated a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps.[27]

From 1917 to 1919 Stocker served as the Officer in Charge of the Medical Division of Fargo Camp (Larkhill) and Sutton Veney Camp Military Hospitals in Wiltshire.  During this period Surgeon-Major Stocker would have received word of this second son’s death, when Flight Sub-Lieutenant Edward Cuthbert Stocker was shot down on 27 March 1918.  One can only imagine the sorrow felt by the good doctor and his wife on learning that their second son had also been lost in the war.

The Fargo Camp hospital that Dr. Stocker supervised had 1,037 beds and the Sutton Veney Camp had 938 beds.  It can be seen that he had significant responsibilities in performing these duties.  From 1919 to 1920 he served as the Embarkation Medical Officer at Plymouth and was Mentioned in Despatches for his service there.[28]

Major E.G. Stocker, R.A.M.C., who had been wounded during the war, retired from the Army, having been awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal with Mention in Despatches Oak Leaf and the Territorial Decoration. 

Figure 5.  The Territorial Decoration (GVR).
(Image from the author’s collection) 

NOTE:  The medal above is not that of Major E.G. Stocker.  It is presented here for illustrative purposes only. 

Figure 6.  The Medal Index Card of Major Edward Gaved Stocker, R.A.M.C.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com) 

Edward Gaved Stocker of “Trevean”, Compound Road, Probus, Cornwall died on 28 April 1938.  Probate of his Will took place in London on 29 June 1938 with his effects (Resworn) of £4923-17s-4d (approximately $658,560 US in 2025 currency) going to George Herbert Grenfell, retired china clay producer, Sophia Dorothea Stocker, widow, and Elizabeth Thomas (wife of Henry Thomas).[29]

 Flight Sub-Lieutenant
EDWARD CUTHBERT STOCKER
Royal Naval Air Reserve

            Edward Cuthbert Stocker was born on 23 August 1899 in Clevedon, Somerset.  In addition to the schools noted in his brother’s narrative, Edward also studied at the West Buckland School in Devonshire where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps (OTC). 

After leaving school he developed an interest in flying and enrolled at the Bournemouth School as a student and learned to fly in a Caudron Biplane.

Figure 7.  The Caudron Biplane, Model G2.
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

            After successfully completing the course of instruction, Edward was awarded the Royal Automobile Club Pilot’s Certificate No. 4306 on 28 February 1917.  On 27 August 1917 he was appointed a Temporary Flying Officer in the Royal Naval Air Service (R.N.A.S.) at Greenwich.  He was promoted to Flying Officer on 18 October 1917 and was sent to France with 5 (Naval Squadron), R.N.A.S.  On 1 April 1918 he was appointed a Flying Officer and an Aeroplane Officer in the Royal Air Force.[30]

No. 5 Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service had been formed at Dover on 2 August 1915 from elements of No. 4 Squadron R.N.A.S., which had been relocated to Eastchurch. In October 1915, No. 5 Squadron had ceased to exist as it was absorbed into R.N.A.S. Dover. On 31 December 1916, 'B' Squadron of No. 5 (Naval) Wing was redesignated No. 5 (Naval) Squadron. It operated Sopwith 1½ Strutters, making bombing raids on Belgian ports and German airfields. In August 1917, the squadron was equipped with DH.4s. No. 5 (Naval) Squadron was attached to 5th Brigade of the Royal Flying Corps in February 1918. On 1 April 1918, at Bois de Roche, France, it transferred to the Royal Air Force and was redesignated No. 205 Squadron RAF.[31] 

Figure 8.  The DH4.
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

            While flying a DH4 and returning home from a bombing raid at Foucaucourt at 1630 hours on 27 March 1918, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Edward Cuthbert Stocker was reported missing while flying in the neighborhood of Dompierre on the Somme.  It is believed that he was downed by flak and that his aircraft fell burning and touched the ground not far from some German columns.  He was assumed killed in action at age 18 and has no known grave.[32]

REFERENCES: 

Army Lists 

1.      Monthly Army List, December 1912, p. 834.

2.      Monthly Army List, April 1914, p. 833.

3.      Monthly Army List, February 1915, p. 833.

Books 

1.      BECKE, A.F.  Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 1.  HMSO, London, 1934.

2.      BECKE, A.F.  Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 2a.  HMSO. London, 1936.

3.      MARQUIS de RUVIGNY, THE.  The Roll of Honour.

4.      University of London Student Records, 1836-1945. 

Census 

1.      1901 Census of England.

2.      1911 Census of England.

Civil Documents 

1.      Probate Calendar, 1915, p. 340.

2.      Probate Calendar, 1938, p. 604.

3.      Pilot Training Certificate, Edward Cuthbert Stocker, 28 February 1917.

4.      Arras Memorial Index No. M.R. 20, Part XXI, p. 1229.

5.      Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery B. 4, Vlamertinghe, Belgium, p. 50.

6.      Commonwealth War Graves Memorial, 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker.

7.      Commonwealth War Graves Memorial, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Edward Cuthbert Stocker, R.N.A.S.

8.      Carn Brea Parish Memorial, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Edward Cuthbert Stoker.

9.      Carn Brea Parish Memorial, 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker.

10.  U.K. Medical Directory, 1845-1942.

Family Trees 

1.      Ancestry.com: Thomas Fuller Stocker (by DavidMaughfling78).

2.      Ancestry.com: Edward Gaved Stocker (by DavidMaughfling78).

3.      Ancestry.com: Edward Cuthbert Stocker (by DavidMaughfling78).

Internet Web Sites 

1.      Imperial War Museum: Lives of the First World War: 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker, R.E.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205389240

2.      Imperial War Museum: Lives of the First World War: Flight Sub-Lieutenant Edward Cuthbert Stocker, R.N.A.S.

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/6880110

3.      Clevedon Civic Society.

https://www.clevedon-civic-society.org.uk/Static/recsmil1cns.html

4.      The Aerodrome.

https://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?p=780802

5.      The Long, Long Trail: Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-corps-of-royal-engineers-in-the-first-world-war/tunnelling-companies-of-the-royal-engineers-underground-warfare/

6.      The Long, Long Trail: 27^th Division.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/27th-division/

7.      Wikipedia: 171^st Tunnelling Company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/171st_Tunnelling_Company

8.      Roll of Honour: Camborne School of Mines.

https://www.roll-of-honour.com/Cornwall/CamborneSchoolOfMines.html

9.      Wikipedia: Upper Bristol Road Drill Hall, Bath.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Bristol_Road_drill_hall,_Bath 

London Gazette 

1.      The London Gazette, 20 May 1902, p. 3326.

2.      The London Gazette, 13 October 1908, p. 7384.

3.      The London Gazette, 9 August 1910, p. 5795.

4.      The London Gazette, 27 April 1915, p. 4071.

5.      Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 January 1916, pp. 1 and 68.

6.      Supplement to the London Gazette, 13 April 1916, p. 3904.

Military Documents 

1.      Medal Index Card: 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker, R.E.

2.      Medal Index Card: Major Edward Gaved Stocker, R.A.M.C.

3.      U.K. Navy Lists, 1917.  Royal Flying Corps, Naval Wing (R.N.A.S.), p. 374.

4.      Naval Service Papers, Edward Cuthbert Stocker.

5.      Service Papers, 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas Fuller Stocker.  The National Archives, WO339/29443 (not digitized).

6.      Royal Air Force Gradation List, 1918, pp. 2351 and 3070.

7.      Royal Engineers Medal Roll, British War Medal and Victory Medal: 936 Sapper Thomas F. Stocker.

8.      Royal Engineers Medal Roll, British War Medal and Victory Medal: 2^nd Lieutenant Thomas F. Stocker.

9.      Royal Engineers Medal Roll, 1914-15 Star: 936 Lance Corporal Thomas F. Stocker.

10.  Royal Army Medical Corps, Medal Roll, 1914-15 Star: Major E.G. Stocker, R.A.M.C.

11.  Royal Army Medical Corps, Medal Roll, British War Medal and Victory Medal: Major E.G. Stocker, R.A.M.C.

Periodicals 

Battle Honours of the Royal Engineers.  The Royal Engineers Journal.  The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, Kent, 1925-1932.

ENDNOTES: