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Pte. Simon Preston
British Army 20th (Tyneside Scottish) Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers
from:Dawdon, Seaham Harbour, Durham
(d.1st Jul 1916)
Simon Preston was born in 1892 at Trimdon Foundry, Durham, the eldest son and one of eight children of Thomas Preston,a coal miner, and Jemima Henderson. In 1911 the family were living at 7 Wynyard Street, Dawdon, Seaham Harbour, Simon aged 19 was a miner, coal putter underground. In 1914 he married my Aunt, (my father's sister), Florence Beatrice Bailey I believe at St Hild & St Helen's Church Dawdon. They had no children.
He enlisted in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 20th (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916, his medal card records him as presumed dead. Simon is commemorated at The Thiepval Memorial and also on a Memorial Plaque in the Dawdon Miners Lodge. Simon's brother Thomas born in 1898 in Trimdon, enlisted in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 22nd (Tyneside Scottish) Brigade, he was killed 5th June 1917 and is commemorated at the Sunken Road Cemetery, Fampoux, France, and also on a Memorial Plaque in the Dawdon Miners Lodge.
