Packman, TA

Lieutenant Thomas Alfred Packman

Tom was born on May 18^th 1895 in Strood, Kent, the middle of three sons of Sheffield-born medical doctor Alfred Packman and his wife, Eliza. He came to Dulwich in 1911 at the age of 16, having previously been a pupil at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in Rochester. In the summer of 1913, shortly before leaving the College, he was part of the shooting 2^nd VIII which took part in the Public Schools Rapid Firing Competition at Bisley. From Dulwich he went on to the City & Guilds Engineering College, where he was a member of the O.T.C., and in the summer of 1914 went to study in France, living with the Inspector of Factories for the French Government. When war was declared that Summer he hitch-hiked across France in order to return to England, and upon his return signed up for service at once.

Tom was given a commission in the Royal Horse Artillery later that August and, by November was back in France, this time on active service, coming under heavy fire at Neuve Chapelle early that month. The following June he was promoted to Lieutenant; it was also around this period that he officially transferred to the Royal Field Artillery, although he was still attached to the Royal Horse. After spending time in command of the ammunition column he was, in the summer of 1916, attached to a Trench Mortar Battery on the Somme. It was whilst serving in this capacity that he was killed, by a sniper, on September 9^th. After his death, his parents founded the Tom Packman Memorial Hostel & Club, a Y.M.C.A. in his home town of Rochester, in his honour.