Thomas Fairhurst

Bank: District Bank

Place of work: Preston branch

Died: 9 April 1941

Thomas Fairhurst was born on 25 March 1920, the son of James and Alice Fairhurst. He joined the staff of District Bank as a junior at its Preston branch in August 1937. 

In September 1939 Fairhurst left the bank to go on military service, joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On 9 April 1941 Pilot Officer Fairhurst was reported missing when his Wellington bomber failed to return from an operational flight over Germany. It was later discovered that the aircraft had crashed into the Ijsselmeer, a lake in the north of the Netherlands, and it was presumed that he had been killed on that day, two weeks after his 21st birthday.