Death of Tom Kirk, WW1 veteran, aged 106

[sandyford]

Newcastle Evening Chronicle has today reported the death,at his home in Woolsington, on Tuesday 9th November, of Tom Kirk, aged 106.

Tom Kirk was called up in 1917 to join the Royal Navy, from studies at Newcastle Medical School.

After just weeks of training he was named surgeon probationer and posted to HMS Lydiard until the end of the war, when he returned to complete his medical training.

For 40 years, he was a GP in Lincolnshire.

His daughter June has said that he was a very good natured man, interested in people and with friends of all ages. He didn't retire from working with Meals on Wheels until he was 93. The paper carries a recent photo of him and one taken as a 20 yr. old.

Tom had been invited to London today, Saturday, to the Royal Albert hall to meet the Queen and would have laid a wreath on the Cenotaph tomorrow, Sunday.

He was too ill to go out and would have watched the ceremony on television.

[gord97138]

Sandy:

Thanks for the info and News on Tom Kirk.

When I go to The American Legion Club tonight-

I'll raise a glass to him!

gordon

[Will O'Brien]

Raising a glass in the memory of Tom tonight.

[stiletto_33853]

Sorry to hear of Toms death, raising a glass to him tonight.

Andy

[shelley]

Rest Easy, Tom.

with respect

Shelley

[Kate Wills]

Duty done, Tom. May you rest in peace.

[Mike Cross]

Obituary from the Independent Online....

Tom Kirk was the last surviving medical officer of the First World War.

His qualifications for such a position at the war's start, however, were minimal. He had done only one year at medical school and had passed his 2nd MB, but had done no clinical work. Before joining up, he was sent to the casualty department of the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle for six weeks to learn how to dress wounds. He was then posted to Haslar Naval Hospital in Gosport.

He worked on the wards, learned a little of naval practice and was reproved for an incorrect shirt and jacket because he had used his local tailor instead of Gieves. He spent his last evening in Gosport passionately kissing a young nurse in the local sand-hills, probably thinking that this would be his last chance, as the next day he would report as a Surgeon-Probationer to HMS Lydiard, which had seen action at the Battle of Heligoland, Dogger Bank and Jutland.

Tom Kirk was born in 1899 near the ironworks at Seaton Carew in County Durham, where his father managed the coke ovens. One of three children, he had vivid recall of his father, who drank tea from a moustache cup and would measure him against the door-jamb of the ironworks to see his progress and allow him to ride on the footplate of the engine which pushed a wagon up the slagheap before tipping molten iron down the hillside. A kindly man, he gave his son on his first birthday a model steam engine. On each birthday he or one of his brothers would add to the train set and play on their knees with young Tom, breathing in the smell of methylated spirit oil and steam.

When he was only eight, his father died. A family friend who had started a school offered him a place, and he was to spend four happy years there. One of the outings from there was to Blackpool Airport, where he saw an air display which included Louis Blériot arriving in his biplane having just flown across the Channel. In 1912 Tom Kirk was awarded a scholarship to Giggleswick School in north Yorkshire and as a reward his uncle sent him tickets to see Lancashire play, and beat, the Australians at Old Trafford.

At the outbreak of war, Tom was playing for the school cricket team and was a member of their OTC, in which he was a sergeant. In December 1914, he was offered a place at Newcastle Medical School. He left Giggleswick with the words of his physics master ringing in his ears: "You'll be a rotten doctor, but you'll get away with it somehow."

His train stopped at Stockton on Tees, where his grandfather rather dramatically put a shell fragment into his hand, shouting: "The Germans are in Hartlepool!" That day German battle cruisers had fired 1,500 shells on the town, killing 112 people. Tom Kirk's war had become a reality. After two terms at medical school, he had won prizes for anatomy and, to the chagrin of his former master, physics. On his 18th birthday in 1917, he passed his medical and submitted his name as a Surgeon-Probationer.

On board HMS Lydiard he was astonished to find he was the only medical officer and that he had medical responsibility for five other destroyers. The main task for his ship was escort duty across the Channel, which included accompanying the first American troops from Southampton to Le Havre. On one occasion the crew went ashore to play football against a French side, but they never found the ground.

After further trips in Norwegian water, Kirk was released to continue his medical studies. He reported to his medical officer on the depot ship and handed over his meagre stock of first-aid equipment and his drug cabinet, from which he had dealt out pills, knowing little of their properties.

On leaving medical school, Kirk went into general practice, dealing with the terrifying outbreak of flu that beset Britain in 1918. He spent 40 happy years in Barton in Lincolnshire and on the outbreak of the Second World War took command of the local Home Guard. While in practice, and then in retirement in Stocksfield, Northumberland, he wrote three novels, Back to the Wall (1967), The River Gang (1968), and The Ardrey Ambush (1969), all published by Faber & Faber.

(The above is from the obituary from the Independent Online today)

[sandyford]

Mike

Very pleased that you posted this obituary.

I loved the dramatic moment of his grandfather greeting him with the words 'The Germans are in Hartlepool'.

Also, as a Surgeon probationer, where he probably imagined himself observing at the elbow of some great man, to find himself the only medical officer onboard and with responsibility for 5 other destroyers, was a bit of a facer.

An excellent obituary of Tom Kirk.

Kate

[john w.]

Just come across this obituary... a fine summation of a life

Rest in peace

John

[Essexboy68]

Very interesting obituary, but surprised at a glaring error made by the author. Louis Bleriot crossed the Channel in a mononplane not a biplane! Still, I am just being pedantic..............

Rest in Peace Tom

Mark

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Very interesting obituary, but surprised at a glaring error made by the author. Louis Bleriot crossed the Channel in a mononplane not a biplane! Still, I am just being pedantic..............

Rest in Peace Tom

Mark

To be even more pedantic it was a 'monoplane'

Anyway another light goes out in the already dim lit hall of our veterans - a sad day for us all