209473 Sgt. Thomas Alexander Gordon MM.British Army 16th (Tyneside Commercials) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers from:Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne (d.2nd Feb 1918) Thomas Alexander Gordon, known as Tom, was born on 2 March 1890, at 25 Sopwith Street, Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, William Gordon, aged 35 at the time of Tom's birth, was employed as a furnace-man at the Elswick engineering works. His mother was Hannah Gordon, nee Thompson, aged 32 at the time of his birth. It would appear that he was named Thomas for his mother's father, and Alexander for his father's father. Tom was the second of four sons born to William and Hannah. It seems that William, the eldest son, served in the Royal Marines for some time. After Tom came Duncan, probably born in 1896, who enlisted during WW1 and was killed in the Pozires sector on 29 March 1918, when serving with 1st Bn The Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The fourth brother, Robert Rutherford Gordon, also served in WW1 and apparently was gassed and invalided out.
Tom Gordon was working in the clothing department at the Newcastle Cooperative Society, as a tailor's cutter, when he enlisted in the 16th (Service) Battalion in September 1914. The Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce raised the entire battalion in the space of eight days between the 8th and 16th of September. The battalion thus earned the nickname of "Tyneside Commercials" which its members bore proudly alongside their comrades of the "Tyneside Scottish" and the "Tyneside Irish". Tom may nonetheless have hesitated a little - his battalion number was 16/701, as he had married at the beginning of 1914, and his wife, Edith (nee Orr) was six months pregnant with their first (and only) child, William.
When the battalion landed in France, at Boulogne, on the 22nd of November 1915, Tom appeared on the embarkation list, as printed in Captain CH Cooke's "Historical Records of the 16th (Service Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers", as "TH Gordon". He was in C Company, commanded by Captain D Lindsay, who went on to win the MC and, as a Major, to be 2 in command of the Battalion. At Thiepval, Tom served in N11 platoon, if he was already in that platoon on embarkation it was then commanded by 2/Lt R Reed.
The Battalion moved rapidly from Boulogne into the front line, in the Thiepval sector of the Somme, to be greeted with the cry "Hallo, Northumberlands!" from the German lines. They remained in this sector, in the front line, or in support, or in reserve, or employed in working parties, until the big offensive known as the "First Day on the Somme", 1st of July 1916.
On the day, the battalion took up its battle position at 02:30, and finally moved forward at 07:30. A and B Companies led the attack, C Company (now commanded by Captain E Thompson) were in support, and D Company in reserve. Tom Gordon (still shown as "TH Gordon") is in the list for 11 Platoon, under the orders of Sgt CA Yarrow who had enlisted shortly after Tom. At the end of the day, the platoon had lost five killed (including two of their Corporals) and had twenty two wounded. The following day only eight officers, and two hundred and seventy nine other ranks of the battalion were able to march into their quarters.
In 1917, on 17 September (London Gazette), by which time he had been promoted to Corporal, Tom was awarded the Military Medal, along with eight other NCOs and men of the Northumberland Fusiliers. This also appeared in the 29 September issue of the regimental journal, St George's Gazette. There were no citations published for the MM (created in March 1916) but family tradition says that he had rescued a wounded officer lying out in No Man's Land, presumably on the 1st of July. By a strange coincidence, his son William, serving with the Royal Artillery in the Knightsbridge Box in 1942, was in his turn carried back to the British lines by his officer, after collapsing with rheumatic fever.
In November 1917 the battalion moved to Belgium, in the Ypres salient. Tom Gordon, now a Sergeant, was able to go home on leave for the Christmas/New Year period. It was during this leave that the only photograph of him, with his wife and son William (who had just celebrated his third birthday) was taken.
It is not known when Tom rejoined the battalion which at the end of January was in the front line near Poelcappelle, in the Ypres Salient. His death in action was reported to have occurred during the night of 1 - 2 February 1918. The battalion War Diary has this to say: "Battalion holding the line on right sector, from approximately V 7 b 15 40 across the Staden railway to U 6 d 90 60. In the evening, an inter-company relief was carried out, A Coy relieving B on the right, and C relieving D on the left. During the night a Battle Patrol under 2/Lt Brownrigg made a determined attack on an enemy post near Turenne Crossing and succeeded in entering the post. But the Germans had withdrawn to two pill-boxes close at hand from which a heavy fire was opened on the patrol. A further attack on the pill-boxes was attempted but the fire was too close and accurate, and the patrol withdrew with the loss of two killed and one wounded. All the casualties were successfully brought back."
The battalion was disbanded on 7 February 1918.
Apparently, Tom Gordon's burial place was not recorded, or else was lost. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in response to a query, wrote: "His grave was among those which the Graves Services were unable to trace after the war and he is, therefore, commemorated by name on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Passchendaele."
After the war, his widow, Edith, was married again, to a former colleague of Tom's from the Co-op, Ernest Kennedy. They had no children. When Edith died, in 1942, both her son William and her husband Ernest were serving abroad in HM Forces and so were unable to return home. It appears that Tom's letters and other papers, which Edith had kept, were thrown out by her second husband's family. Ironically, Tom's War Office records, along with many thousands of others, were destroyed by fire as a result of enemy bombing of London during WW2. Fortunately, when Tom and Edith's son, William (my father), returned to Newcastle at the end of WW2 he was able to recover his father's decorations, including his Military Medal.
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