Carole Fife has provided the following:
Thomas is the youngest person named on the Memorial. He was born in Bedlington in the spring of 1899 one of the five surviving children of Thomas and Mary Ann Tait. His father was a hewer in the pit and for both the 1901 and 1911 censuses the family was living at 9, Cross Row, Bedlington Station. Thomas was young enough to spend the last year of his education at the newly opened Bedlington Station Council School. Mr Bullerwell, the headmaster, wanted his school to have the aspirations of a grammar school, and instituted a plaque in honour of those who had served in the Great War. The unveiling of the plaque was reported in both the Morpeth Herald and the Blyth News, but the articles tell us more about the people who attended the service than they did about Thomas – in fact neither paper got his name right, with the Morpeth Herald referring to him as William Tait, and the Blyth News calling him Thomas Nelson. The plaque was unveiled by John Cairns M.P. who, amongst a lot of political rhetoric, referred to Thomas as one who had 'done his duty well, and had left an example to those who would come after him'.
Thomas enlisted in the 20th Northumberland Fusiliers (1st Tyneside Scottish) as Private number 20/4654, but transferred to 4th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps (which was sometimes referred to as the 'suicide club' due to its high rate of casualties). It is known that Thomas died of his wounds, and he would have been treated in either the 1st or 4th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, which opened in Pernes in April 1918.
He is remembered in Bedlington Station on B163.01 and B163.04
