In Tezze British Cemetery, Italy is the Commonwealth War Grave of 46792 Lance Corporal Eglon serving with 11th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers who died 27/10/1918.
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:
Thomas Eglon was born in Blaydon in 1886 the first child of George and Annie (nee Edington) Eglon who had married two years previously. By 1891 they were living in Hawes Street, Elswick with his younger sisters Lilian Kate (b.1887) and Ethel Alice (b.1890), and ten years later he had more siblings with the addition of George (b.1893), Isabella (b.1895), Mabel (b.1896), Percy (b.1899) and Norman (b.1900).
Aged 15 Thomas was working as a labourer in a factory and ten years later as a colliery shifter when in the first quarter of 1911 he married Annie Mooney, who had just given birth to their son John Thomas the previous November. They lived at 25 Cockran Street, Benwell and also had a houseful of lodgers. Annie died at the end of 1917 and young John Thomas was brought up by his paternal grandparents.
It is not known when Thomas enlisted with the Northumberland Fusiliers, but he would not have seen action in France before 1916 as he was not awarded the 14/15 Star. The 11th Battalion was attached to the 68th Brigade, 23rd Division and they saw action at the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele.
In November 1917 five British Divisions were sent to Italy from the Western Front to join French and Commonwealth forces. As part of 23rd Division 11th Northumberland Fusiliers arrived in Italy on 13th November 1917 concentrating between Mantua and Marcaria before taking over the front line at Montello hill on 4th December. They spent the remainder of the war on the Italian Front serving as part of the Italian Tenth Army fighting the Austro-Hungarian troops. At the beginning of October 1918, the battalion moved to Montecchio Maggiore, then travelled by train and foot to Catena, where the division took its place in the line on the right bank of the Piave river on 21st October.
The Battle of Vittorio Veneto 23rd October – 4th November 1918
At night, the main channel of the river was crossed using small boats and the northern half of the island of Grava di Papadopoli was occupied, the occupation being completed two nights later by a combined Commonwealth and Italian force. After the capture of the island, the bridging of the Piave proceeded rapidly, although the strength of the current meant that the two bridges built for the crossing were frequently broken and many men were drowned. The Allied attack east of the Piave began early in the morning 27th October 1918.
Lance Corporal Thomas Eglon was killed in action that day and is buried at Tezze British Cemetery along with many of those who died on the north-east side of the river during the Passage of the Piave.
Thomas Eglon has no known local memorial.
