Sgt T. B. Kirk was born on 1st February 1919 at the family farm at Sunny Hill, Thornton-le-Street, about six miles south of Northallerton. .
Thomas joined 608 (North Riding) Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force on 10th June 1939.
On 21st October he was sent for his ab initio training to No 6 EFTS at RAF Sywell, Northamptonshire. After Sywell Brian travelled to the coast of north east Scotland and 8 FTS at RAF Montrose.
Brian was awarded his Wings on 9th May 1940 and on 29th June he was posted to the Welsh borders and 7 OTU.

Brian joined 74 Squadron on 14th July.
On the cloudy afternoon of Sunday 20th October, the Tigers took off from Biggin with Brian Kirk in P7370. They were ordered to rendezvous with 66 Squadron and patrol base at 30,000 feet but were immediately sent to intercept an enemy formation approaching Maidstone from the south at 29,000 feet. The Spitfires sighted the enemy made up of about 30+ Me109s and dived into the attack from 500 feet above. They were spotted by the enemy fighters who instantly split up, half diving towards Dungeness while the others started to climb.
Brian led him in to attack an enemy fighter and saw his gunfire cause large pieces to fall off the Messerschmitt’s wings and fuselage before he too was hit, an armour piercing shell passing through the Spitfire’s fuselage, wounding him in the spine. Brian somehow managed to struggle out of his stricken aircraft and take to his parachute but he was paralysed by his wound and on reaching the ground was rushed to nearby Preston Hall Hospital.

At Preston Hall, Brian was operated on, and pieces of armour piercing shell were removed from his back. He shared the hospital with some of the 'Guinea Pigs' - pilots who suffered burns injuries and were undergoing the long and agonising medical treatment which was just coming into practice and which was the forerunner of modern plastic surgery.
Brian was subsequently transferred to Chapel Allerton Hospital Leeds, nearer to home, where the family were able to visit.
On 22nd July 1941, fully nine months after his injury, Brian died.

The World War Two Roll of Honour of the Northallerton Grammar School records twenty names of whom fifteen were RAF personnel, Brian`s included. His name is also inscribed on the beautiful reredos in the Biggin Hill Memorial Chapel, heading the list of his fallen comrades from 74 Squadron. It is also inscribed in the Book of Remembrance which is displayed in the Chapel and is opened at the 22nd July page each year on the anniversary of his death.