Philip Tron

Philip Tron, aged 32, from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing.

On 22 May 2017, at approximately 10:31 p.m., Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old British-Libyan man born in Manchester to Libyan parents, carried out a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena in England at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. 

Abedi, a UK citizen who had recently returned from Libya, detonated a TATP-based nail bomb packed with shrapnel in the City Room foyer, killing 22 people (including children) and injuring 1,017 others (239 with physical injuries). 

His younger brother, Hashem Abedi (also British-Libyan), helped source materials and coordinate the attack from Libya; he was later convicted in the UK of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to cause an explosion, receiving a life sentence with a minimum term of 55 years. 

Philip Tron was killed, along with his stepdaughter Courtney Boyle, as they waited to pick up her sister from the Ariana Grande concert.

On behalf of his family, his uncle Ken Mullen said he had been a “bonny lad” who “always had a smile and cheeky grin when talking to you and was a great source of one-liners”.

He said the former Joseph Swan Senior School pupil loved “working with his hands” and was “the go-to person for family and friends for any practical jobs”.

“This is probably one of the ways where he’s most missed, now there’s not that friendly voice at the end of the phone to see what the problem was and see what he could do to resolve it,” he added.

Rest in peace Philip. You will not be forgotten.