Private Thomas Shell

Private Thomas N. Shell, 1st/4th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He died of pneumonia in hospital in Hornsea on 1st November 1918 and is buried in Kirknewton ( St. Gregory ) Churchyard, Kirknewton, Wooler, Northumberland. He had been wounded on the Somme in 1916 and gassed in March 1917. Before enlisting he had worked as a shepherd for Mr C. F. J. Thompson at Kirknewton Farm. The colour photograph shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until July 1918 when it was reduced to cadre and assigned to lines of communication duties. It was erected near the village of Wieltje in the Ypres where nearby on the 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.