Thomas Albert Platt was born on April 1, 1880 in Dukinfield, Cheshire. His father, Tom Platt, was a “Beerseller and Clogger” who later became the Publican of the Brunswick Hotel on Park Road, Dukinfield. Young Thomas was the fourth of six sons, all of whom were educated well locally and eventually progressed to respectable middle class occupations.
He attended the Heginbottom Technical School, Ashton-under-Lyne where he received a 2nd Class Certificate in bookkeeping in 1898, when he was 17 years old. By 1901 he was working as an articled clerk at Wainwright, Son & Co. chartered accountants in Ashton and still living at home with his parents and three of his brothers.
In 1906 he married Mary Armstrong and they made their home in Ashton-under-Lyne. A year later, he joined the 3rd Volunteer Battalion, The Manchester Regiment as a second lieutenant on June 10, 1907 and was appointed to the 9th Battalion Manchester Regiment Territorial Force with rank and seniority when it was formed on April 1, 1908. In April 1909 battalion orders reported that he passed an examination in Musketry, (per appendix 6, sub-appendix viii), Territorial Forces Act of 1907.
In June 1911 he was appointed Acting Quarter Master when Capt. M.H. Connery proceeded to London for King George V Coronation duties and he was subsequently promoted to Captain on April 20, 1912. Later that year, in October 1912 he was named as one of two honorary secretaries to the newly formed Ashton district detachment of the British Red Cross Society, which was headquartered at the Ashton Territorial Armoury. He served in this position until August 1914 when he was forced to resign due to his mobilisation and imminent departure to Egypt.
In his civilian life he became a Chartered Accountant and also was an uncertified teacher at the Ashton-under-Lyne Mechanics Institute where he was paid 10s for 2hour evening classes and 15s for 3 hour classes.
In February 1914, his father Tom Platt passed away. Tom had been retired for many years and had become a member of the Ashton Board of Guardians (Chairman of the Workhouse Committee), and long time President of the Old Boys Association of Henshaw’s Oldham Blue Coat School, his old school. Consequently, he was widely known and respected in the area and his funeral was attended by many notable people from Ashton and well recorded in the local newspapers.
After the outbreak of war, Captain Platt sailed with the Battalion to Egypt in September 1914 and served with them during their training and preparation for action and he landed with the Battalion in Gallipoli on May 9, 1915 as second in command of “B” Company. There is no mention of Captain Platt in the Battalion, Brigade or Divisional war diaries but regimental records show that he was evacuated to hospital in Alexandria on June 24, 1915. These same records indicate that he was invalided to the UK on September 13 and struck of the strength of the battalion. The brigade war diary references that he embarked on the Hospital Ship Marathon on October 1, 1915 at Alexandria en-route to the UK. Local newspaper reports confirm that he arrived at his home in Ashton-under-Lyne during the 2nd week of October and by early January 1916 had rejoined the 3/9th Battalion in training at Codford, Salisbury Plain.
No longer fit for overseas service he was seconded to a UK post outside the regiment where he was promoted to Major on August 5, 1917. He remained seconded until the end of the war when he returned to the Manchester Regiment. He resigned his commission on April 15, 1921 retaining the rank of Major.
Major Thomas Albert Platt died in a hotel in Ostend, Belgium on September 9, 1929. He was 49 years old.