Tom Nelson was born in Wallbottle, Northumberland on 24 February 1921, the son of Ralph and Frances Nelson. In the 1939 Register Tom Nelson was living at 1, Albury Bank, Morpeth, Northumberland and was noted to be a Statistical Clerk and an Air Raid Precautions telephonist.

He joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (Special Branch) as a Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant in January 1943 and was confirmed as a Sub Lieutenant on 22 July 1943. He volunteered for Special Service and was appointed to HMS VARBEL where he trained as a X-Craft Officer. On completion of his training he was selected for service in the operational crew of HMS X5.

X5 took part in the attack on the German battleship TIRPITZ in Kaa Fjord, Northern Norway on 22 September 1943. X5, with a passage crew on board, left Loch Cairnbawn on 18 September 1943 and was towed to the operational area by HMS THRASHER (Lieutenant A R Hezlet, RN). The operational crew took over from the passage crew for the approach to the target and the attack. It is known that X5 made its way into the area around the TIRPITZ but was not seen again after being fired at and depth charge attacks.

HMS X5 was lost with its operational crew. Tom Nelson was Mentioned in Despatches (posthumously – see London Gazette of 1 August 1944) “for great daring and enterprise in the attack the German Battleship Tirpitz carried out by Midget Submarines in September 1943“.  He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel 80, Column 1 and on the 12th Submarine Flotilla memorials at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute and at Kylesku.