Mark Thomas Green was born circa 1887 in Islington, Middlesex (now Greater London), one of the eight children of Mark Green (1848-1935) and Annie Ophelia Green née Talboys (1846-1920).
In the April 1891 census he is shown as Mark T. Green, aged 3 years and living at 3 Church Grove, Islington, with his parents and six siblings: Annie Hephzibah Green (1870-1950) an India Rubber worker; Edward Henry Green (b.1872) a silversmith; William Albert Green (1875-1947) an errand boy; Florence Louisa Green (1876-1944) a hat shape maker; Frederick Mark Green (1878-1930) a scholar and Thomas J. Green (1885-1968) also a scholar. His father was recorded as a bricklayer.
He was listed as Mark Green, aged 13 years and born in Clerkenwell, London, on the 1901 census. He was living in four rooms at 9 Church Street, Islington, with his parents and an elder brother, Thomas J. Green who was shown as a ticket writer - tobacco, whilst his father continued to be described as a bricklayer.
He enlisted into the 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, service number 9315, on 26 June 1905 and was later that year posted to Malta, He was in Egypt for a month in 1906 before returning to Malta and in 1908 he served in India where he was awarded the Coronation Durbar Medal in 1911. He left the army and was placed on the Reserve List on 28 December 1912.
In January 1914 he was appointed as an Assistant Postman in the London Postal Service and was promoted to Postman in west London in August 1914. However as war was declared that month he was mobilized into the 2nd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment on 5 August 1914. He entered France on 30 August 1914. On 28 December 1914 he received a gun-shot wound to his left hand and was not fit to return to his battalion until 17 April 1915. On 26 September 1915 he was reported missing, presumed killed in action at Vermelles, France, aged 28 years. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Panels 64 & 65 of the Loos Memorial to the Missing, in Dud Corner Cemetery, Route de Bethune, 62750 Loos en Gohelle, France.
On 16 November 1916 his army effects totalling £20-1s-7d were sent to his father who was also sent his £6-0s-0d war gratuity on 16 December 1919. He was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star with the 5TH AUG - 22ND NOV 1914 clasp, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as 'GREEN, M. T.' on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the A Street Near You website, on the London WW1 Online Memorial website and on page 150 of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1914-1920.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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