Tom was the son of William and Blanche Howcroft living in East View Terrace together with his siblings. Before joining the army he was a journeyman joiner. Tom became a member of the Royal Engineers and lost his life on 17th June, 1940 aged 24 years and is buried in Pornic War Cemetry.
He died when the 16,000 ton Cunard liner Lancastria was sunk. She was laying 5 miles off St Nazaire and embarked troops, RAF personnel, and civilian refugees, including women and children, who were being evacuated from France, which was then on the point of collapse. The number on board may never be known, but almost certainly exceeded 6,000; some estimates were as high as 9,000. The Lancastria was attacked and hit by bombs from German aircraft. The ship sank rapidly and, according to the estimate of the Captain, only around 2,500 of those on board were saved. Owing to the scale of the tragedy Winston Churchill forbade publication of the news, in the interests of public morale, and hence the story of the Lancastria has never been generally known, although it is Britain’s worst maritime disaster.