Liverpool WW1 soldier's plaque moved to 'show heroes exist'

Thomas Thompson enrolled for military service at the start of World War One

A memorial to a former gas worker who died in World War One will be moved so "more people can remember his sacrifice", the UK's largest gas distributor said.

Thomas Thompson, 24, worked for Cadent gas in Liverpool before he was killed in Belgium in 1918.

His memorial plaque, currently locked away inside a gas works, is being moved to a busier site.

Marc Satchell from Cadent said it showed "heroes really did exist".

The network technician said the memorial was originally placed at the Caryl Street gas works, near the current Brunswick railway station, where Mr Thompson's father Robert also worked as a foreman along with hundreds of other people.

"To remind him, to remind everyone what a massive thing his son did, to give his life so we could have ours, must have filled [Robert] with pride," Mr Satchell said.

But the site is now a gas pressure management station, where "only a handful of workers" see the plaque so it is moving to a busier gas yard in nearby Garston.

The memorial at the Caryl Street site will be moved to the Garston depot

Born in Everton in 1894, Thomas Thompson worked at Caryl Street gas works before enlisting and joining the Royal Field Artillery at the start of World War One, landing in France in September 1915.

His unit later relieved the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division on the frontline at Givenchy and Festubert in February 1918.

On 21 October 1918, as his unit advanced into Belgium, Mr Thompson was killed in Esplechin, where he is buried.

Network technician Marc Satchell hopes to trace Mr Thompson's descendants

Mr Satchell said another plaque would also be put outside the Caryl Street site "just so that people in the area can know about Thomas, and know that heroes really did exist and they came from this area".

He said he wanted to track down his family to let them know that "Thomas is not forgotten".