Thomas Willoughby was born in Badsey, attended Badsey School and moved with his family to Wickhamford in the 1890s. On his mother’s side, the Hartwells, he came from a family which had lived in Badsey since the end of the 18th century. Private Willoughby’s name is recorded on the war memorial in St John the Baptist’s Church, Wickhamford, and in Wickhamford Memorial Hall, but not on the school war memorial, which must presumably have been an oversight.
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Private Thomas Willoughby enlisted in the 1/8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regt (Nos 20223 & 242275) and was killed in action on 24 April 1917 in France. He is listed on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Panel 5A & 6C), as his body was never recovered. He was the son of James and Annie Willoughby and lived in Manor Road at the 1911 census, when he was a market garden labourer. His Victory and British War Medals were supplied to his mother after the War (his father having died in 1913).