When his mother died in 1887, Thomas was 11 years old and still at school. Work followed soon afterwards and in the 1891 Census, we find him at the Vicarage, where he is an indoor servant. In the context of a Victorian household, he would have lit fires, carried coal, cleaned boots, run errands and generally made himself useful.

We know from his Royal Marine demobilisation papers that he moved on from this job to work in Kingsteignton's brickfields as a labourer at some point between 1891 and 1894.

In 1894 on the 23rd of July, he journeyed to Plymouth and enlisted in the Royal Marines. He was immediately posted to the Royal Marine Depot in Deal, Kent. He was 19 years old.

At the time Thomas enlisted, the Marines had been reconstituted as two units - the Royal Marines Light Infantry and the Royal Marines Artillery. It was the former unit that he joined. His training would mostly have been land-based and he would have used similar weapons to any army infantryman.

How the Royal Marines developed

Thomas Stentiford's Record of Service 

HMS Cambridge was a floating school composed of out-of-date vessels. Its purpose was to provide training in gunnery skills.

HMS Cambridge

A class of trainees in the mid 1890s

©Steve Johnson

HMS Ganges was also a training ship. In 1906 it was renamed HMS Tenedos. HMS Bulwark was the flagship of the Mediterranean. 

HMS Bulwark 

The crew c. 1903

©Tim Labett

HMS Gibraltar

Launched in 1892. A Cruiser of the Edgar Class.

©Steve Johnson

We can see from Thomas's Service Record that he did not take part in the Boer War or later, the First World War. It is possible to deduce that he was ultimately wounded, not only from this Service Record but from the leg scars recorded on his Demobilisation paper on the next page. We see in 1912 (the year of his marriage) that he was put on light duties as a batman and after that, he was sent to the Infirmary where he remained for some two years. His final years were passed in the Cook House.