LIEUTENANT TOM DENTON EDDISON, 19th BATTALION KINGS LIVERPOOL REGIMENT.


LIEUTENANT TOM DENTON EDDISON, 19th BATTALION KINGS LIVERPOOL REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION, 23th JULY 1916 AGED 24.


Tom Denton Eddison was born in 1892 in Harrogate, the only son of Joseph and Florence Eddison. By 1901 the family had moved to Ilkley and lived in a large house called Ploverfield on Ben Rhydding Drive. As a child, Tom was sent to board at a small prep school called Charney Hall at Grange-over-Sands until 1904, when he attended Eastbourne College. The Eddison family had in fact moved to Eastbourne in Sussex and the school was the nearest public school. In 1911 Tom went up to Merton College, Oxford and three years later graduated with a second class honours degree in law. At the beginning of the war he volunteered for a public schools battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. These were similar to 'pals' battalions except they only took men who had attended one of the recognised public schools. At this stage of WW1 the War Office believed that men who had attended the 'best' schools or had been to university would make the best officers. Therefore, many soldiers from the public school battalions would be recommended for officer training. Tom obtained a commission in the Kings (Liverpool Regiment) in November 1914 and was sent for officer training. He arrived at the Western Front in February 1916 and was posted to the 19th Battalion. On 30th July 1916 the 19th Kings were involved in an attacked at Trones Wood near to the village of Guillemont on the Somme. Tom led his platoon towards a a feature known as Arrow Head Copse but was killed. His commanding officer wrote to his grieving parents saying that Tom had died instantaneously and was "a brave lad and absolutely fearless". The body of 2nd Lieut. Tom Eddison was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. He is also remembered on the war memorials in Eastbourne, Merton College and Eastbourne College as well as our memorial in Ilkley


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