BHR Edinburgh
New Member
I am searching for information about my husband's grand-father, Thomas Brown Gillies, who died on 18th March 1918 from burns sustained in an explosion in a Birmingham laboratory. He was 43 years old and left a family of six children aged between 15 and 16 months, the youngest being my mother-in-law. In the 1911 Census Tom Brown was living in Polmont, Stirling and stated he was a Commercial Traveller at a Steel Foundry. His death in 1918 was registered in St Mary's, Birmingham, his address was quoted as Bushey Hall Road, Watford, Herts and he was said to be Director of a Limited Company (name unknown). His obituary in The Times on 19th March 1918 said he was a metallurgical chemist and a member of a Watford firm. It was said within the family they were told that "but for his work with explosives, the First World War would have taken a different course". We'd really like to know how he progressed from being an art student/missionary, commission agent, commercial traveller, analytical chemist, metallurgical chemist and works manager to becoming a director of a limited company and what he was doing to be killed in an explosion. Sounds really fascinating and I hope someone can enlighten me. Thanks for your help.