Links

The Lives of the first world war web site has a record of Tom Allen. In due course, his letters from the front will be added to the collection there.

Google Maps allows us to quickly visit the landscape near Cuinchy in which Tom Allen fought. A monument on the site of the mill mentioned in Tom's letters allows us to visualise the line of the French trench visited by Tom, and we can view both monument and trench alignment, again using Google Maps.

Also to be found on Google Maps, a short distance from the position of the 1915 front line trenches, is Cuinchy Communal Cemetery where Tom Allen was buried, his grave being cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The National Library of Scotland's map collection holds British First World War trench maps from various dates - you can inspect the maps for the area near Cuinchy in which Tom Allen fought - displayed as a georeferenced overlay on Google Earth satellite imagery.

The captain in charge of Tom's Battalion, G.E.S. Young, survived another two years, rising to the rank of Major. He was killed on the last day of March, near Meaulte in the Somme.