From Victoria to Passchendaele: Finding Thomas Le Breton Roscoe

Come learn the story of a boy born in Victoria, in a home he would not remember, and his journeys across the world, until his eventual passing at the battle of Passchendaele. On Thursday October 22nd at 7:30PM, at Ross Bay Villa, listen to the story of Thomas Le Breton Roscoe, researched and told for the first time by historian Greg Scott.

Born 1878 in the master bedroom of Ross Bay Villa Historic House Museum, Thomas was the youngest child and second son of Frances Roscoe and Letitia Le Breton Roscoe, born just 5 months prior to his father’s unexpected death and the subsequent emigration with his mother and four sisters to England in January of 1879. He would have grown up with stories of Victoria and the father he never knew.

He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge with a BA in 1900, beginning his career as a schoolmaster in Wales before earning a law degree and emigrating to South Africa, where he joined the civil service as a lawyer. In 1908, he married Helen Kathleen “Bunny” Powell, and they settled in Murraysburg, South Africa. During World War I, Thomas enlisted in the First South African Infantry in December 1916 at age 38. According to his Attestation Papers and Medical Exam, he was age 38, 6 feet tall, dark hair, gray eyes, with fair complexion.

He trained in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and Bordon, England, before joining the 1st Battalion in France. He participated in the Battle of Menin Road, part of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), where he was killed in action on September 20, 1917.

His friend Private Reg Lawrence said, upon Thomas’ death: “We placed his helmet over his face, hiding his twisted lips and his kind eyes and left him with the rifle inverted in the ground at his head – like a gentleman and a soldier.”

Greg Scott is a published historian, archivist, and tour guide of many decades, who in 2017 received the City of Nelson’s Heritage Award. He has, with support from other Villa volunteers, uncovered the global story of the youngest Roscoe child. Please come experience this narrative with us for the first time. Tickets are $10 and must be booked in advance at https://tinyurl.com/ThomasRoscoe. All proceeds support volunteer-run and owned Ross Bay Villa, a heritage restoration project and museum built in 1865.