Gordon Nicholson was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire on 8 January 1913, the son of Samuel Gordon Nicholson (a Mechanical Engineer) and Amy Elizabeth Nicholson (née Willington).  After leaving school he served in the Merchant Marine as an Engineer and made at least two voyages between the Far East (Hong Kong/Singapore and Boston, Massachusetts) in the SS GLAUCOS.

He was appointed Probationary Lieutenant (E) Royal Naval Reserve on 29 September 1938.  At the time of the 1939 Register he was listed as a Technical Assistant for the Asiatic Petroleum Company and as a Lieutenant (E) serving in HMS VICTORY.  On 15 April 1940 he was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MEDWAY at Alexandria in Egypt ‘for Submarines’.

Gordon Nicholson was next appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS TITANIA ‘for Submarines’ on 28 October 1941.  The date of his appointment to HMS TIGRIS as the Engineer was 15 August 1942.  HMS TIGRIS failed to return from patrol off Naples and was possibly depth charged and sunk with all hands by the German Navy escort JU2219 off Capri on 27 February 1943.

Gordon Nicholson of The Moorings, 41, Chandon Road, Greystoke Park Ealing London W3, is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel 79, Column 3.