Gerald Paxton

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: Manchester branch

Died: 10 August 1918

Gerald Arthur Paxton was born at Eaglescliffe Junction, County Durham on 21 March 1894, the son of Alfred Reed Paxton, a mechanical engineer, and his wife Ada. In July 1910, when Paxton was 16 years old, he went to work for National Provincial Bank of England as an apprentice at its Guisborough branch. After finishing his three-year apprenticeship he remained there as a clerk. In 1914 his manager described him as 'a good clerk - his books are most neat, hardworking and very interested. Will do well.' In the same year, he passed the final examination of the Institute of Bankers, and in 1915 won a prize in an essay-writing competition for bank clerks on the topic of the Cooperative Banking Movement in India. In April 1915 he transferred to Manchester branch.

In May 1915 Paxton joined the army, initially as a Private, and then as a Lance Corporal, in the Royal Sussex Regiment. He was commissioned in April 1917. By 1918 he was serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Royal Air Force. He died in Greece on 10 August 1918. He was 24 years old.