BORN HULL 1887. HULL PAL. SON OF JAMES DIXON (1838-1814) & ELIZA KIRBY (1843-1906), OF 213 WINCOLMLEE, HULL.
MARRIED AT ST. SAVIOURS, HULL, ON 26/01/1913. HIS WIFE EVA BANKS & SON KENNETH, LIVED AT 11, VICTORIA AVENUE, BEETON STREET, HULL (ARMY ADDRESS) AND 4, MARFLEET VENUE, CRAVEN STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). WORKED FOR THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWAYS AND AS AN OIL MILLER. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 2 INCHES TALL, 34-36 INCH CHEST, 126 LBS WEIGHT. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. KILLED ON THE FIRST DDAY OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, AGED 29.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE THOMAS DIXON 11/1186. Born in 1887, Thomas was the second of four children to James and Eliza Dixon. He married Eva Banks in March 1913 and the couple resided at 11 Victoria Terrace, Beeton Street, Hull with their only son, Kenneth. A Labourer before the war, Thomas didn’t enlist with the initial rush, but attested at City Hall on June 16th 1915, joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen, 2nd Hull Pals. He arrived in time to complete his training and ship out to Alexandria in Egypt with the rest of the battalion that December, and served there as part of the defence of the Suez Canal, a vital supply link with the British Empire and a target for the Turkish Army. Leaving Egypt in March 1916 they disembarked in Marseilles and headed north for the trenches of the Western Front. Thomas was killed in action on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Whilst not in the front line for that fateful attack, they were crammed into the Reserve trenches and were on stand-by as a potential second wave. They came under attack from German artillery and there were casualties. Thomas was originally listed as ‘Missing believed Killed’ and remained so until 17th July when his death was confirmed beyond reasonable doubt by one of his officers. On the Military Records they use a phrase which sends a shiver down my spine with its cold matter-of-factness, “Struck off under WO (War Office) letter”….they crossed his name off the list with the flick of a fountain pen. Thomas Dixon’s body was never recovered and his name is among 72,000 others commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to those who died on the Somme sector and who have no known grave.
