People on board

MELLOR, Norman

Norman Mellor was born in Halifax, Yorkshire in late 1897 to Eli Exley Mellor and Emily Jane Jeakins, the younger of their two children, both sons. Eli Mellor was a Draper with his own business in Trinity Place, Halifax in 1891 and in Clare Road in 1901. In the 1911 census he was with his brother, also a Draper, and his family while Emily was with Norman in Silver Street. The older boy, Alfred Exley, then aged twenty-one may have already gone abroad, as a local history says that he died in Java in 1912 of fever.

Norman attended Bradford Grammar School and joined the Officer Training Corps in 1915. He was commissioned in The Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) and subsequently transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. His records have not been found but the local history says that he served as a Lieutenant and was temporarily blinded in an air battle. He became an Instructor in the newly formed Royal Air Force and there were several RAF training camps in Ireland by 1918.

Presumably returning home on leave he travelled on the 10th of October on RMS Leinster. He did notsurvive the sinking but his body was recovered and returned to Halifax for burial. The Halifax Evening Courier reported on the 17th that the funeral “was of a military character, the bearers and a firing party of 20 [were] from the Barracks”. The coffin “was covered with the Union Jack, and was borne on a gun carriage, drawn by two Horses”. The interment was in All Saints Churchyard in Halifax. His name is recorded on three Halifax Memorials.