Grain merchant and provost, High Street

Trading as W Easton & Son.

Thomas was a grain merchant and grocer who took over his father’s business in the High Street.

He was provost (mayor) from 1908 to 1919 and controversially supported the total cancellation of the Common Riding in 1915. He did not want to be re-appointed provost in November 1914 but was persuaded to stay on while international hostilities continued.

He was born in Langholm as one of eight siblings, three of whom died in infancy and one aged six. His sister Janet moved to Pennsylvania, USA, and died at age 35. His wife Joanna Armstrong, from Midlothian, died in 1907 at age 45 while on a visit to Stirlingshire.

Thomas and Joanna had one child, William, who was an accountant in Glasgow when he joined the Army Service Corps. William was injured by shellfire as a dispatch rider and had to have his arm amputated. He died in a Calais hospital on 22nd January 1916, 12 days after being wounded, aged 24, and is buried in Calais Southern Cemetery.

Born	Langholm, 1860
Parents	William Easton (1822-1907), Euphemia Rogerson (1829-1897)
Siblings	Third of four daughters and four sons
Marriage	Joanna Armstrong (1862-1907), died age 45 in Bridge of Allen, Stirlingshire
Children	William (1891-1916)
Died	Bridge House, Langholm, 1928, aged 68