Thomas Witting

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: Leeds branch

Died: 14 October 1918

Thomas Noel Witting was born on Christmas Eve 1893, the son of Charles Stanley Witting, a Scarborough wholesale woollen merchant, and his wife Emily.

In April 1910, when Witting was 16 years old, he went to work for National Provincial Bank of England as an apprentice at its Newcastle upon Tyne branch. He completed his apprenticeship three years later, and in August 1913 was transferred to Huddersfield branch as a clerk. In December 1913 he transferred to Norwich, then to Crickhowell in September 1915, and to Leeds in March 1916. In that year he passed the final examination of the Institute of Bankers.

During the First World War Witting joined the army, serving as a Private in the Durham Light Infantry. He died in Belgium on 14 October 1918. He was 23 years old. His younger brother Stanley, who also worked for the bank, had been killed in action the previous March.

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Messages of remembrance

NatWest Group Remembers team, October 8 2018 3:50PM

Many thanks to Edward Wild for the image of Second Lieutenant Witting and additional information about him.

Adam Brown, October 15 2018 12:23PM

WITTING, THOMAS NOEL
Service Number: 92122
Died: 14/10/1918
Aged: 24
19th Bn. Durham Light Infantry. [104th Brigade, 35th Division]

Son of Charles Stanley Witting and Emily Witting, of 10, Eaton Rd., Ilkley, Yorks.

Buried in Dadizeele New British Cemetery, Belgium

Many of those buried in the cemetery were concentrated there after the war. The men of the 19th Durham Light Infantry who died on 14th October 1918 were recovered from marked graves on the battlefield by an army exhumation company in early 1920. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has scanned and published online the War Office paperwork for the re-burials. All the men of the 19th DLI who were recovered and identified had a cross marking their graves except Private Witting.

The War Office paperwork record that Private Witting was recovered from map reference S/29 G 27 d.1 5. The National Library of Scotland has scanned trench maps from the First World War and it possible to work out that this British Army map reference gives his place of death and original burial place as west of Kortrijk (Courtai) and now under the on-ramp of junction 1 of the A19 Motorway.