Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Gallipoli Campaign was fought on the Gallipoli peninsula 25th April 1915 to 9th January 1916. in a failed attempt to defeat Turkey by seizing the Dardanelles and capturing Istanbul. Ill-conceived and planned, the initial effort by the Royal Navy failed to force passage through the Dardanelles by sea power alone. It was then realised that a land force was needed to support the project by suppressing the Turkish mobile artillery batteries. By the time all was ready the Turks were well aware and well prepared. Despite amazing heroics on the day of the landings only minor beachheads were achieved and over the succeeding 8 months little progress was made. Eventually the beachheads were evacuated in a series of successful ruses.

Despite Gallipoli rightly becoming a national source of pride to Australians and New Zealanders, far more British casualties were sustained, and these days the substantial French contribution is almost forgotten.

Detail :

Temporary Surgeon Thomas Loius Grenet Stewart, Royal Navy. Died of wounds received in action aboard Hospital Ship "Ascania."

Recorded in Naval records as being entered as Temporary Surgeon, Royal Navy, 7th September 1914, posted to HMS Ganges (Shotley Training Establishment) and further appointed to Shotley Sick Quarters, near Harwich, on the 19th of the same month. On 17th November 1914 he is appointed to the Royal Naval Division at Walmer, Deal, before joining the 1st R.N. Brigade H.Q., Royal Naval Division (M.E.F.) on 1st March 1915 as its Sanitary Medical Officer.

A ledger belonging to Argosy Lodge states that Thomas was “killed in action, Dardanelles” and a quick look at the war records shows he died, aged 27 years old, on Friday, 4th June, 1915. Thomas was in action the previous day and had received a head wound which needed immediate treatment, while acting as Sanitary Medical Officer for the brigade. He was taken to the hospital ship “Asconia” at anchor off shore but was unable to survive his injury, dying the following day, at the height of the Third Battle of Krithia. His body was eventually taken to the island of Lemnos, a Greek island in the north-east of the Aegean Sea, and he is buried in Plot I, Row A, Grave 16, of East Mudros Military Cemetery, along with another 884 burials from the Great War. The Asconia was a ship of the Cunard Steamship Company of Liverpool which had been requisitioned as a Hospital Ship to treat the wounded at the Gallipoli (Dardanelles) Campaign. Built in 1911 at Wallsend on Tyne it had a gross tonnage of 9,111 ton, and was lost in 1918 in a shipping accident.

The record of his death appears in the Scottish Probate Calendar: "STEWART, Lieut. Thomas Louis Grenet, Surgeon, Levern House, Barrhead, died on active service 4 June 1915, at the Dardenelles, testate. Confirmation granted at Paisley, 8 October, to Matthew Stewart Levern House aforesaid, his father, Executor nominated in Will or Deed, dated 14 August 1914, and recorded in Court Books Commissariat of Renfrew, 5 October 1915."

Thomas's portrait image appeared in the Liverpool Echo of 18th June, 1915 together with the following notice: "Liverpool Dr. Killed. Mr. Mathew Stewart of Levern House, Barrhead has received official intimation that his son Surgeon Captain Thomas Louis Grenet Stewart has died of wounds received at the Dardanelles. Surgeon Captain Stewart was 27 years of age and was a graduate of Glasgow University. He had confined himself entirely to hospital work, of which he had a fairly wide experience. He was well known in Liverpool, having been on the staff of the Grafton Street Fever Hospital and Parkhill Sanatorium before the outbreak of war. He joined the forces immediately war was declared, and after three months in Shotley Hospital was transferred to the Naval Brigade with the rank of Captain. He had been in the Dardanelles since February. No official news has been received as to the circumstances under which Dr. Stewart was wounded, but it is understood to have been whilst he was in attendance on a landing party. It is interesting to note that Dr. Stewart’s grand-father (DR. Risk) was surgeon in charge of Turkish forces in the Dardanelles during the Great War.". The portrait image included above can also be viewed on Find-a-Grave.

The British Medical Journal of 19th June, (or 10th) 1915 contains his obituary as follows:-, "Surgeon Thomas Louis Grenet Stewart, R.N., was reported as wounded in the casualty list of June 12th and of having died of his wounds in that of June 14th. He was educated at Glasgow where he took his degrees of M.B. and Ch.B. in 1911. After serving as junior house-surgeon to the Borough Hospital, Birkenhead, and as assistant resident medical officer to the Brownlow Hill Infirmary, Liverpool, he received a temporary commission as Surgeon in the navy for the war. He is the first naval medical officer to be actually killed in action during the war, as distinguished from those, already a considerable number, who have gone down with their ships."

Masonic :

THOMAS LOUIS GRENET STEWART M.B., D.P.H., was proposed and balloted to join Argosy Lodge No. 3740, on November 13th 1914, his occupation being that of a Naval Surgeon. No record of Thomas being initiated into Argosy Lodge has been found in the records, and this could be explained by looking at contemporary service records which show he is away on service at this period, before heading overseas.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Researcher : Geoff Cuthill