John Taylor and Ann Norman have submitted the following:
Austin Tracey was number Z/2424 in the 2nd battalion of the Royal Naval division. His record states that he was born on 12th November 1896 and his home address was 28 Sandy Lane Eighton Banks. The record gives his religion as Roman Catholic. An Austin Tracey enlisted in the 2nd Battalion RND on 29th December 1914 and in 1915 was sent to HMS Bellerophon which was in Devonport for a refit. On 26th June 1915 he was drafted from the 2nd battalion to Portsmouth for duty with the Grand Fleet. It seems that he was free in 1916 to enlist in Newcastle with the Northumberland Fusiliers 12th Battalion where he was number 24182. His naval record states that he forfeited his medals possibly because he left the service to join another regiment. He was killed in action on the Western Front on July 1st 1916 when he was not yet twenty years old. Austin is listed on the 1911 census with his family in Sandy Lane Eighton Banks. He was fourteen years old and the middle child of five. His father Patrick was a hewer and Austin was already working as a 'flatter' in a mine below ground.
He is remembered in Eighton Banks on E50.01 and E50.02
An “Austin J. Tracey” is recorded in Gateshead on G39.025
