In Busigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 21742 Regimental Serjeant Major Thomas Heslop, M.S.M., MiD., serving with the 50th Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) who died 06/11/1918.
Rev. David Youngson has provided the following:
393 St. David’s Lodge
Year of Warrant 1828
Freemasons Hall. Parade, Berwick upon Tweed.
He was the son of Rachel Agnes Heslop (nee Heley) of the Thatch House Tavern, 45 West End, Tweedmouth, Northumberland and the late Thomas Heslop.
An Ironmonger residing in Tweedmouth he was Initiated into St. David’s Lodge No 393, Berwick upon Tweed, Province of Northumberland on the 2nd January 1912; Passed 6th February 1912 and was Raised on the 5th March 1912.
Enlisting at Alnwick, Northumberland he went to France on 21st April 1915 and was twice Mentioned in Despatches, London Gazettes dated 25th May 1917 and 24th December 1917, and was a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal (date unknown).
He died of influenza at the No. 12 Casualty Clearing Station on the 6th November 1918 aged 27. He is buried in Busigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France, Grave Reference VIII.A.21.
North Eastern Railway Magazine 1919.
Regimental Sergeant-Major T. Heslop, 50th Battalion M.G.C. (goods porter, Tweedmouth), died from influenza at a casualty clearing station, France, on November 6, 1918. He had served in the Territorials before the war, and, offering himself for re-enlistment, was accepted on August 12, 1914. He was mentioned in despatches in 1917 and again in January 1918.
Thomas Heslop is remembered at Berwick upon Tweed on B25.01 and B25.20, at Tweedmouth on T31.01, on the North Eastern Railway War Memorial (York). and in the Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-18 (London).
