Thomas Robson Drummond, Merchant Navy
Thomas Robson Drummond was a Freemason and member of Lodge Temperance 2557 who served in the 2nd World War. A letter to the Provincial Grand Secretary of Northumberland from WBro John Sowerby, Secretary, and dated 7th November 1947 attached a list of the names and service of forty three Brethren and Brother Thomas is shown serving in the Merchant Navy.
At the Lodge Temperance 2557 meeting held at the Royal Assembly Rooms, Westgate Road, on 15th October 1945 Thomas was proposed by Bro James Dixon and seconded by Bro T. L. Cook as a fit and proper person to be made a Freemason.
He was a 30 year old confectioner residing at 93, Brighton Road, Gateshead. A successful ballot was held the following month on 19th November and he was initiated into the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry on 20th March 1946. He was passed to the second or Fellowcraft degree on 17th February 1947 and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason on 16th June 1947.
He must have really enjoyed his Masonic experience as he persuaded his brother James Drummond to become a freemason and he was initiated into Lodge Temperance in 1946. James is also listed in the WW2 Roll of Honour and is shown as being in the Royal Navy.
Thomas was born on 21st September 1915 in Gateshead to George Little and Catherine Robson Drummond. Dad George was a fitter and turner with a motor car builder in 1911 and by 1939 a millwright. It’s interesting that at George’s birth, and at other times, his name was recorded as George “Little” Drummond, but he was in fact named in honour of his Orkney-born grandfather George Liddell Drummond. He was also in the Royal Navy during WW1 as an Engine Room Artificer 4th Class and after training served on board HMS Comus, a light cruiser. He was born in Gateshead in 1888 and married Gateshead born Catherine Robson Liddell in Gateshead in 1909. They had five children:
- Jane Isabella Liddell (b 27/07/1909 – 11/1988)
- James (24/8/1911 – 3/01/1988)
- Thomas Robson (21/09/1915 – 27/10/1976)
- George Liddell (b 21/01/1918 – 10/1997)
- Alma (04/01/1923 – 24/04/1981)
On September 3rd 1939 war was declared and preparations were underway when Thomas married Doris Evelyn Hawley seventeen days later on the 20th September 1939 in Gateshead. Doris was born in Gateshead in 1914.
In the 1939 register taken on 29 September 1939 Thomas is an assistant cook and a special constable with the London and North Eastern Railway living with Doris in a “Tyneside Flat” at 23, Claremont South Avenue, Gateshead.
Little is known about Thomas’s time during the war except he served in the Merchant Navy. In 1946 he was awarded several medals for his time at sea. The 1939-1945 Star and Ribbon (awarded for six months’ service with at least one voyage in an operational area), Atlantic Star and Clasp (awarded for service in the Atlantic, home waters, North Russia Convoys or South Atlantic waters), Africa Star (awarded for service between 10 June 1940 and 12 May 1943, serving in the Mediterranean) and the War Medal (1939-1945 awarded for serving a minimum of 28 days at sea).
Thomas and Doris had two daughters one in 1941 and the other in 1946. Thomas was living at 33, Bruce Gardens in Fenham, Newcastle Upon Tyne when he died on 27th October 1975 aged only 61. His wife Doris lived on to the grand age of 91 and died in October 2005 in Newcastle upon Tyne survived by her daughters and grandchildren.
Many thanks to descendants of the Drummond family for the use of Thomas’s photo and help with this short biography.
