Bank manager’s tribute to hero
A BANK worker killed in the First World War has been honoured by colleagues at the same branch a century later.
Thomas Nelson Melrose started work as a clerk in Lloyds Bank in Wallsend in 1912.
When war broke out he enlisted in the 5th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers and became a second lieutenant.
He was killed in France on November 14, 1916, aged 23.
Now the house where he lived in Horsley Terrace in Tynemouth has become the 200th to receive a commemorative plaque from the Northumbria World War One Commemoration project.
The plaques programme is marking the surviving homes in Tynemouth, Cullercoats and North Shields of soldiers who lost their lives in the war.
The latest unveiling was attended by the manager of the Wallsend branch of Lloyds, Andrew Ramsay.
Thomas Melrose’s name appears among the 686 Lloyds employees lost in the war in a commemorative book at the bank’s London headquarters.
Mr Ramsay said: “Last year the bank marked the 125th anniversary of the branch in Wallsend and when Thomas Melrose began working there it would still have been a relatively new face on the High Street.
“For him to die at the age of 23 is a tragedy.”
Mr Ramsay said that six of his greatuncles, from Newcastle, had also died in the conflict.
He said: “I think the plaques scheme is a super idea. It shows the impact of the war on relatively small communities.”
This is underlined by Eleanor Street in Cullercoats, where there are nine plaques. The aim is to reach 300 plaques for the old borough of Tynemouth, before the project moves on to Whitley Bay. Thomas Melrose also appears among the 21 names on the First World War roll of honour board in Percy Park Rugby club in Tynemouth, where he was a member, and St Columba’s United Reformed Church in North Shields. Second Lt Melrose was one of seven children of Thomas Melrose, a fishing boat owner and fish salesman.
He was a pupil of Tynemouth Municipal High School, and went to France in 1915.
He came home with an injury in February, 1916, and returned to France four months later. He was killed when in charge of a company which captured a German trench, which was then strongly counter-attacked.