Corporal NATHANIEL CLARK NEILSON,
21st Royal Fusiliers, was the son of W. B. Neilson, Esq., Rowland’s Gill, and was born in 1885. He entered the Second Master’s House from Bow School, Durham, in September, 1899, and was in the XI. and XV. in 1902. He left at Easter, 1903, to become a Mining Engineer. He did much to foster the Rugby game in Durham County, and played in the Durham XV. from 1904 to 1909. He was also Captain of the Sunderland Rugby Football Club.
When war was declared, Corporal Neilson was manager at Chopwell Colliery, and he enlisted in the 21st (Public Schools’ Battalion) Royal Fusiliers in the early days of the War. He served with the Royal Fusiliers for a long period in France and Flanders, and was killed in action near Bethune on the 5th February, 1916.
Source : The War Record Of Old Dunelmians 1914-1919