Hugh Bailey

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: Taunton branch

Died: 31 January 1919

Hugh Gardner Bailey was born on 18 May 1881, the son of James Bailey, a newspaper publisher, and his wife Frances E Bailey.

In July 1898, when he was 17 years old, Bailey started work for National Provincial Bank of England at its London Marylebone branch. He moved to Harrogate branch in 1905; Bolton branch in 1906; then, later in 1906, to Manchester branch. In 1909 he moved to Taunton branch, initially as a clerk, but later as pro accountant. In January 1914 he was appointed branch accountant at Taunton.

In the first week of September 1914, a month after the outbreak of the First World War, Bailey joined the West Somerset Yeomanry as a despatch rider. The following May he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry. He was posted to India in December 1915, and it was there that he died on 31 January 1919, of a fractured skull sustained while on military service. He was 38 years old.