Private Thomas Dryden

Private Thomas Dryden, 1st/5th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France on 3rd November 1918, aged 41 during the ” Advance to Victory ” and is buried in Tournai Communal Cemetery, Allied Extension, Tournai, France. He was the son of Mr and Mrs William Dryden and the husband of Elizabeth Dryden of 44 West End, Tweedmouth. The photographs show Allied troops advancing after the retreating German Army. The colour photo 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 Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby on the 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.