Thomas Grimshaw Hyde was born in Chorlton on March 30, 1896. His father, Thomas Hyde, was a Master Brewer and the owner of Hyde’s Brewery Ltd. Thomas was educated at Gresham’s School in Holt, Norfolk and is shown as a boarder there in the 1911 census along with his younger brother Alfred Neal Hyde. After he left school he worked in the family brewing business.
Thomas’s mother Margaret Hyde, (née Neal), was the younger sister of the 9th Battalion’s Commanding Officer Lt.-Col. D.H. Wade’s wife Ada and no doubt because of this family connection Thomas was commissioned into the 9th Battalion on April 27, 1914 when he was just 18 years old. The London Gazette listing reads as follows:
9th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment. Thomas Grimshaw Hyde (late Cadet Lance-Corporal, Gresham’s School Contingent, Junior Division, Officers Training Corps) to be Second Lieutenant. Dated 27th April, 1914.
He sailed with the battalion to Egypt serving with them through their training and preparations for action. Whilst in Egypt he was promoted to full Lieutenant on November 4, 1914 along with several other junior officers. He is not mentioned in the Battalion or Brigade war diaries in Gallipoli but regimental and service records indicate he landed with them on May 9, 1915 and remained there until June 16th when he was attached to the rest camp on Imbros as a staff member. On July 22nd he reported sick to the 25th Casualty Clearing Station and was evacuated from there where he was diagnosed with Jaundice. They quickly evacuated him to the Military Hospital Tigné, Malta disembarking the H.S. Gloucester Castle on July 29th. After a couple of nights there he embarked H.M.A.T. Ceramic arriving at Devonport on Aug 7, 1915.
In the UK he was treated for Jaundice and Varicocele and pronounced fit for duty on December 7, 1915 by a medical board at the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester.
He rejoined the Battalion in Egypt arriving from the UK, with a draft of 66 other ranks on May 19, 1916. The London Gazette notes that he was appointed temporary Captain with precedence from January 3, 1916 (which often means that this was the date he assumed command of a Company). He attended a 10-day course of instruction in Zeitoun in early June and was appointed acting Battalion Quarter Master upon his return in mid June.
He is mentioned again in the Battalion war diary of 1917, when they were in France, noting that he went on leave to the UK on May 24, 1917. He was promoted to Captain on June 7, 1917 and accepted as an RFC Flying Officer (Observer) on Probation on Aug 28, 1917 and permanently left the Battalion on September 2, 1917. He trained at the Wireless and Observers School in Winchester and was Appointed as Flying Officer (Observer) and posted to No 4 Squadron, France on Dec 23, 1917. He was subsequently posted to 42 Squadron on March 24, 1918. On May 20, 1918 he left for a month’s instruction in flying and after attending Air School was posted to No 37 Training Depot Station to gain experience.
Sadly, his brother Alfred Neal Hyde was killed in action in France on September 21, 1918 while Thomas was at flight school. Second Lieutenant A. N. Hyde of R.A.F. 205 Squadron B.E.F. was killed in action returning from a bombing raid on Busigny, France.
Thomas was in hospital for 10 days in early November and upon his discharge rejoined No 37 Training Depot Station. But by now the war had ended and so on November 27 he ceased instruction on aviation and proceeded home on dispersal. He resigned his commission on January 29, 1919.
After the war, Thomas Grimshaw Hyde married Rose Margaret Miller, the daughter of John Cambre Miller, the Modern Languages Master at Gresham School, in April 1924 in Norfolk. Their first son, Alfred Neal Grimshaw Hyde named after his late brother, was born in 1926. Christopher Grimshaw Hyde was born four years later on April 28, 1930. By this time Thomas was working in the family brewery business and was living at “Gresham House” in Moss Side, Manchester.
By 1939 Thomas was a Master Brewer and Managing Director of Hyde’s Brewery, Ltd. and was living with his wife, her widowed mother and his youngest son in Hale, Cheshire.
Captain Thomas Grimshaw Hyde died on April 2, 1947. He was buried in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester and was 51 years old.