'Tommy' Timson commanded a squadron at Swaythling at the beginning of the war, and later served as a remount officer in Egypt. He had a chronic fear of the sea, but still had to accompany conscripted horses on long voyages. The whisky he took to cope with these journeys earned him the nickname 'Cold Tea' Timson.

Timson came from a well-known Hampshire family, of Tatchbury Mount near Southampton. He was renowned as a fine horseman, and before the war bred horses and livestock, and was joint master of the New Forest Buckhounds. He had previously served with the Lincolnshire Regiment, being first commissioned in 1888.