Hi adi1962,
Thanks a million - I had always assumed (fatal, I know) that Arthur had joined the army by 1891, as he had disappeared from the family home in Liverpool. Now I know where he was.
Now I have to trace him in Dover in the mid-1890s - he had left the army by 1896, but rejoined as a soldier in 1899 to fight in the Boer War.
The other Thomases aren't mine - Arthur was born in Liverpool and Amy born in Dover.
Again, many thanks
Quarryman