Todrick T Captain 8th Royal Scots
Source : Edinburgh University Roll Of Honour 1914-1919
Todrick T Captain 8th Royal Scots
TODRICK, THOMAS, W.S., Capt., 1/8th Battn. Royal Scots (T.F.), elder s. of Robert Todrick, Agent for the Bank of Scotland at Haddington, Hon. Sheriff Substitute, by his wife, Marianne Somerville, dau. of the late Rev. John Stevenson, of Wigtown; b. Haddington, 26 Dec. 1879; educ. Knox Institute; Leys School, Cambridge, and Edinburgh University, at which latter he took his law course, and was admitted, in 1904, a Writer to the Signet. Apprenticed for a time in the offices of Messrs. J. & J. Turnbull, W.S., Edinburgh, he afterwards started business there on his own account. He received his first commission in the 7th (Haddingtonshire) Vol. Battn. of the Royal Scots, 1900, and was appointed to the command of the Headquarters Coy. at Haddington, 1908, which command he held till 1913, and then joined the Reserve of Officers. Early in 1914 he accepted the offer to take command of the Dalkeith Coy., and on the outbreak of war volunteered for foreign service. It was expected that the Service Battn. of the 8th Royal Scots would be called upon to leave Britain about Christmas, but on 1 Nov. they received orders to entrain the following day. Within a few days they were in France, and by the 15th of the same month in the firing line. Capt. Todrick took a prominent part in the operations, and was killed in action 15 Dec. 1914.
A few nights before his death he crept from the British across to the German trenches, went under the wire entanglements and came back on that occasion in safety. A few days later the General in command asked that listening patrols should be sent out at night, and Capt. Todrick went out with three men himself. On reaching a certain point he asked them to lie in a ditch, as he thought he saw figures moving in front; he went on alone and fired his revolver. Doubtless the flash revealed him; an answering shot struck him in the neck, and his death was practically instantaneous. His men brought back his body, and he was buried in a little French cemetery while shells passed overhead. One of his brother officers wrote: “Poor Todrick has gone, best of comrades and bravest man in the battn.; no officer could have been more beloved by the others of all ranks in the battn.” Capt. Todrick was mentioned in F.M. Sir John (now Lord) French’s Despatch of 31 May, 1915.
He m. at Blackheath, 27 Aug. 1910, Brenda (30, Regent Terrace, Edinburgh), dau. of John List, chief engineer of the Union-Castle Line, and had a son and dau.: Archibald, b. 25 April, 1912; and Elizabeth, b. 5 Feb. 1914.
Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 1
