Lance Segeant Thomas Harrison

Lance Sergeant Thomas Harrison, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in Belgium on 26th April 1915 at St Julien during the Second Battle of Ypres and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He lived in Dock Road, Tweedmouth and had been an enthusiastic piper in the Town Band. The Battalion had only landed in France on 21st April and been rushed north into Belgium to take part in an abortive attack in support of the Canadians at St Julien. The Battalion was caught in the open in the face of heavy machine gun fire and without cover suffered over 400 casualties. The photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient near nearby the Division had fought its first action on 26th April 1915  only days after landing on the Continent.