Lieut. Elliot signature
Rev. David Youngson has supplied the following:
Lieutenant Thomas Victor Guppy ELLIOT
Royal Horse & Royal Field Artillery
1st Northumbrian Brigade.
He was Initiated into 2666 Victoria Commemoration (Reserve Forces) Lodge, Masonic Hall, Grainger Street, Newcastle on Tyne on the 16th February 1911; Passed 16th March 1911 and Raised on the 20th April 1911. He was the Junior Steward of his Lodge in October 1914.
He died of wounds on the 16th October 1915 and is buried in Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, Nord, France, Grave Reference II.G.20.
Clare Singleton has provided the following:
Thomas Victor Guppy Elliott was born in Italy in 1887. He was the son of Henry Campbell Elliot (1860-1945, vicar) and Henrietta Elliot nee Guppy (1864-1944) They had 6 children: Arthur, Dorothy, Thomas Victor Guppy, Henrietta, Mary and John).
Thomas was a boarder at Felstead School, Felstead, Essex in 1901.
He served in the 2nd Battery, 1st Northumbrian Brigade Royal Field Artillery (Territorial Force).
He died at the 12th Officers' Clearing Hospital, Hazebrouck, France on 16th October 1915.
The entry in the War Diary for the 17th October 1915 states: ‘Lt. T.V.G. Elliott who died last night was buried in Hazebrouck. His horse bolted with him on the 14th and fell, and he fractured the base of his skull and had since been in hospital unconscious.’
In the book The ‘War History of the 1st Northumbrian Brigade R.F.A. (T.F.) 1914-1919 by C.H. Ommanney, it is said he died from ‘injuries received as the result of his horse bolting with him on exercise and slipping on a level crossing . . .Not only was he very popular, but his work in the Battery was uniformly good. He was very keen and plucky, and his death made a great gap in our ranks. It was felt by all of us that to come safely through three or four months fighting and front line work, as he had done, and then to meet his death through an accident, was particularly hard.’
His address was given as of Gosfield Vicarage, Halstead, Essex. He left £371 13s 11d.
He was awarded the 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. His father’s name and address on the Medal Roll Index form was H.C. Elliot Esq, c/o Mrs Holme, Bearsdene, Camberley, Surrey
Thomas Victory Guppy Elliot is remembered in Gateshead on G39.075 and in our Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-18