Andrew Duncan Tait was born on 12 December 1897 the second of the five children of Andrew Tait (1866-1954) and Alice Jane Tait née Brookman (1864-1955). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1898 in the Marylebone registration district, London.
In the 1901 census he is shown as aged 3 years, living at 60 Seymour Street, Marylebone, with his parents, his two siblings: Margaret Tait (b.1896) and Hector Macdonald Tait (1899-1960), together with 4 male journeyman bakers, a baker's shop-woman, a female domestic servant and a female boarder who was living on her own means. His father was described as a master baker and shopkeeper.
On 22 August 1909 he was baptised at the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Market Place, Somerton, Somerset, where in the baptismal register his date of birth was incorrectly recorded as 12 December 1898. The register shows the family still residing at 60 Seymour Street, London and his father as a baker.
On 7 November 1910 three of his siblings: Hector Macdonald Tait; Stuart Tait (b.1901) and Jessie Tait (b.1905), were baptised at St Thomas's Church, Portman Square, Marylebone. The baptismal register confirms the family were still living at 60 Seymour Street, London and that his father was a baker.
In March 1915 he enlisted as a Rifleman in the 9th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles), service number 4143. He entered France on 17 August 1915 and was serving in their 1st/9th Battalion when he was killed in action, aged 19 years, on 1 July 1916 in the Battle of Gommecourt, France. His body was never found and as he has no known grave he is commemorated on Pier and Face 9C on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Rue de l'Ancre, 80300 Thiepval, France.
On 3 November 1917 his army effects totalling £8-18s-4d were sent to his father who was also sent his £5-0s-0d war gratuity on 3 October 1919. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as 'TAIT. A.D. RFL. 9TH. Q.V.R.' on the Quebec Chapel war memorial at the Church of The Annunciation, Bryanston Street, London, W1H 7AH. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, and on the Street Near You website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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