Lionel Beaumont Thomas

Colonel Lionel Beaumont-Thomas MC (1 August 1893 – 7 December 1942) was a Welsh businessman, British Army officer and politician, who served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Birmingham King's Norton, from 1929 to 1935. Early life The second child of industrialist Richard Beaumont-Thomas and his wife Nora Anderson, Lionel was born on 1 August 1893. Educated at Rugby school, on graduating in 1912 Lionel was commissioned as Second Lieutenant (Special Reserve) in The Royal Artillery. He then spent two years touring Europe, gaining knowledge of pig iron and steel production, particularly the ARBED steelworks in Luxembourg where he lived. World War I On the outbreak of World War I, and now married, he was promoted to Lieutenant. Posted to the 14th Brigade, he served in the trenches. Promoted to captain, for three years from August 1915 to August 1918, Beaumont-Thomas was adjutant to the 14th Brigade of the Royal Horse Artillery. He served in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, where the division in which he served held ground around the village of Mametz. In January 1917, he was awarded the Military Cross for holding a stretch of ground after two of his companions had been killed. Inter-war period Promoted in June 1918, to Major in charge of the 76th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, he was tempted to stay on, but decided in light of the death of his father to rejoin the family business, Richard Thomas & Co Ltd. Rather than taking a board position, he took a working post to learn the business. He did however retain his military commission, appointed to command a Battery in the 83rd Welsh Brigade, the Territorial Army in Cardiff.