Thomas Stroud Jerome

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Stroud Jerome was born in Alverstoke, Gosport, Hampshire on 28 April 1849.

Thomas Stroud Jerome ISO, FSI had a distinguished career as a surveyor on the staff of the Royal Engineer Services reaching the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 1 April 1907 (source- The London Gazette 16 June 1908) in the Royal Engineer Services with the grand sounding title of Chief Inspector of Works a position from which he retired just prior to the outbreak of the War on 29 April 1914 (source- London Gazette 19 May 1914). He had been responsible for designing the magnificent Military Headquarters Building at Aldershot, the foundation stone of which had been laid by the Duke of Connaught on 28 March 1894. Although, this Grade II listed building is no longer in use by the army, a street in the redevelopment has been named after Colonel Jerome to maintain the link with the architect of the HQ building.

Colonel Jerome was apparently already a resident of Hampton Wick with his two granddaughters by 1901. By the outbreak of war he was living at Olaves, 18 Glamorgan Road, Hampton Wick. According to his obituary in The Surrey Comet dated 14 April 1917, when war broke out he returned to service but died on 1 April 1917. According to the report of his funeral, Lieutenant Colonel Jerome had been working at the War Office under General Rock where he had been mentioned in despatches for his valuable services.

Colonel Jerome was buried on 7 April 1917 in Kingston cemetery. His family remained residents of the house in Glamorgan Road until 1956 with his granddaughters living locally until their deaths in the nineteen eighties.