WHEN THOMAS Smith Shackleton died in the trenches in 1917 there was only his sister Mary to mourn him back at home.

For Thomas’s coal merchant father Thomas mother and mother Rachel had both died before the boy reached 15.

Young Thomas continued his studies at Keighley Trade and Grammar School before moving to the School of Art in 1908.

Thomas was later described as a man of strong principles, demonstrated by his enlistment in the Territorial Army in 1910 at the age of 19.

He spent more than three years as a part-time soldier, attending annual training in the Isle of Man, Flamborough and Ripon, before he left for London in 1913 to begin studies at the Royal College of Art.

But the following year, immediately after war broke out, he signed up again – and the following year, so I’m travelling to France with the West Riding Regiment.

In 1916 Thomas left the trenches, returning to England to train for a commission, and it was the following February, before he returned to the front lines as a lieutenant.

Three months later. Thomas was killed in action.

Thomas, greatly liked for his“quiet, gentle manners and disposition”, left £1,426 to his sister Mary.