An ARP detachment leader called Thomas Alderson was the first recipient of which award?
Thomas Alderson Thomas Alderson Thomas Hopper Alderson GC (15 September 1903 – 28 October 1965) was the first person to be directly awarded the George Cross shortly after its creation in 1940. He was an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) warden in Bridlington. He was fifth of six children. He went first to his local village school and then continued his schooling at Elwick Road senior boys' school, West Hartlepool, becoming Head Boy. During World War I he witnessed the bombardment of West Hartlepool by the German High Seas Fleet on 16 December 1914. After leaving school at 15 he first worked as
Thomas Alderson an office boy and a draughtsman, and then undertook an engineering apprenticeship. He joined the Merchant Navy, becoming a first engineer. Following the birth of his daughter in 1935 he became an engineer for West Hartlepool council. He moved to Bridlington in 1938 as works supervisor for the Corporation. Local authorities were responsible for air raid precautions and trained their own workforces in rescue work. Alderson attended an anti-gas school at Easingwold, near York, and became an instructor in the subject. He worked as part-time Air Raid Warden, leading a detachment of rescue and demolition parties in Bridlington. The coastal