In 1901, the family were living in 4 Paradise Buildings, Paradise Street in Bermondsey, London. By the next census on 2nd April 1911, WILLIAM GEORGE was assisting his father in the family Greengrocer business at 90 Keetons Road, This shop is still on the corner of Jamaica Road [Location Map].
He worked as a Post Office messenger in the City of London from the age of 142.
The First World War started (for the UK) on 4th August 1914. WILLIAM (1897-1916) had started working for the Post Office in February 1915 and would be not only in a 'man's world' but, as a messenger, out and about the City of London hearing and receiving information about the war from all around him.
There wasn't any conscription until January 1916 when, because of the poor rates of volunteering (and high mortality rates), the UK Military Service Act was passed making single men aged 18 - 41 from non-reserved occupations, open to conscription. From the back of a photograph, written in his mother's handwriting we now know that WILLIAM joined up on 3rd January 1916 enlisting in the 1/8 City of London Regiment - The Post Office Rifles. He was 18 years old.
WILLIAM signed up with two of his best mates and fellow Post Office messengers. His service number was 4873 with the rank of Private. He was sent to France on 19th May 1916 after training and may have already been promoted to Lance Corporal at that time. His service record isn't available.We know that WILLIAM (1897-1916) died at the Battle for the Butte-de-Warlencourt on 7th October 1916.
WILLIAM may have seen his first action at the Battle of Vimy Ridge (22nd May 1916) when his regiment arrived at the Front. Though we do know that after Vimy Ridge, "Several drafts were received, both officers and other ranks."1
The Post Office Rifles retired to billets at Camblain Chatelain ("which quickly became 'Charlie Chaplin.'"3) for three weeks until 11th June to rebuild with the new drafts and take part in morale building activities and it seems likely that this is where WILLIAM arrived.
Post Office Rifles date and location unknown.
Commanding officer T Wright.
Commanding officer T Wright.
William is believed to be in the back row, third from the left.
The Battle of the Somme - High Wood and Beyond (September 1916)
The Battalion headed towards the front line on 11 June 1916, taking over the trenches in the Souchez sector to keep the Germans "pinned down 3". The Post Office Rifles weren't involved in trench raids, 'only' heavy artillery.
"As the June days wore on the tension increased. All were aware of the impending Allied offensive to be mounted further south on the Somme, and hoped that the Division would be pulled out of the line in order to join the army of pursuit.....
News of what was actually going on in the south took a long time to percolate through to the PORs, and it was to be another month before they would start the long march south. In the meantime, they left the Souchez sector on 15 July for another spell at Vimy, scene of the 21 May action. Life here was somewhat quieter than before, although the Germans still held onto the craters. Finally on 31 July the Division was relieved, and after a five-day march went into billets in the St Requier area for a final 'fattening up'.....
On 20 August the PORs were on the move again, as the Division now began its approach to the battle area. The weather was extremely hot, and many men fell out, overcome by the heat. As a result it was decided that from henceforth the day's march would start at dawn and end by midday when the sun was at its hottest....
Franvillers was reached on 23 August, and for the next three weeks, the Division prepared itself for its blooding on the Somme...
The Battle by this time had become one of attrition.... However, (Lt General) Haig was determined on another major effort at breakthrough, and by the end of August was convinced that the Germans had suffered sufficiently for success to be more than just possible. There was, too, the fact that from late September the area was usually subject to several weeks of unsettled weather, and therefore the offensive must be mounted sooner rather than later. The ultimate objective was to be Bapaume, and the basic plan was to establish a firm flank Morval to Bapaume and attack with all available troops centered on the Albert-Bapaume road.
The PORs spent their time training hard for the battle to come. Officers visited the front line, and some also had a chance to have a preview of the tanks (a new weapon at that time). Much emphasis was placed on night operations, practicing night attacks and digging in as noiselessly as possible. The weather was sill very hot, but with some rain, and the flies were everywhere. There was also a good deal of minor sickness - mainly a form of summer 'flu, which left the victims feeling rather low for a few days. The estaminets (inns) in the area were much frequented.
'Most of us turned over the very few francs and centimes that we happened to have and spent it. "Erfs" and "pomme de terre" were on sale plus plenty of "Plink Plong" - cheap red or white wine."
...in the early hours of 12 September, the Battalion left its billets for the last time and began its move forward......At 8.00am a bivouac area in Beaucourt Wood was reached.....For two days they waited here. "No parades, no duties, just the, by now certain knowledge that we were not going to "hold down the line" but we were "going over the top". Packs of well-worn cards were in demand for the many "schools".
... Finally during the afternoon of the fourteenth the order came to move forward to the assaulting positions..... Greatcoats and packs had been handed in, and dry rations, carried in a musette bag, issued. Each man wore his gas mask rolled and stuffed into the front of his tunic. He carried additional ammunition in bandoliers, two empty saddlebags for use in strengthening captured positions, a pick or shovel, and his entrenching tool.
....Zero hour was at 6.30am, and at the moment the Shiny Seventh (7th Battalion) went over the top without any preliminary bombardment, they met with heavy enemy fire, which drove them to ground with heavy casualties. The PORs went into action shortly afterward .....Immediately they were met with intense machine gun fire.....In a few minutes three of the four assaulting company commanders... . were killed and the survivors had ..... gone to ground.
(By employing a huge battery of three inch Stokes mortar fire) " ....'the Jerry emplacements at last began to silence one by one.'....soon afterward, twenty or so Germans came over the open battlefield holding their hands up above their heads. Within a short space of time the PORs had collected some 200 prisoners, and High Wood, after two months of furious effort had fallen.... During the next four days the PORs remained in action. It took some time to sort out the confusion and attacks were mounted on positions which had already been captured...
The next three days were ones of furious local attacks and counter-attacks as the PORs strove to hang onto their positions in the Flers Line...... They managed to hold on, but it was an exhausting time for all, especially since the rain never ceased. A survivor remembers it as '...a nightmare between our artillery firing short and shrapnel from the German guns, while at night time everybody had to man the firestep and use our sodden and muddy rifles as best we could to repulse a counter-attack."
At last, just before dawn on the twentieth, they were relieved by a battalion of the Black Watch from the 1st Division.....the survivors made their way back into billets in Albert that night, and the next day marched a short distance to camp at Henencourt. It was only here that it was possible for the first time to take stock of the casualties......The final bill was sixty-three killed, fifty missing, 185 wounded, or about a third of the Battalion's strength. However, they had been luckier than the other three Battalions in the Brigade who lost far more.It is also possible that WILLIAM GEORGE (1897-1916) and his two friends only joined the action at this time as I recollect my grandfather telling me WILLIAM was killed in his first battle.
William (on the right) and his two friends and Post Office work mates
(names, dates, location unknown, though a Rifleman Robert EDEN aged 19 died on the same day as William and had the next Serial number to him, so could be one of his friends).
(names, dates, location unknown, though a Rifleman Robert EDEN aged 19 died on the same day as William and had the next Serial number to him, so could be one of his friends).
Remembered by family as joining the PORs together and dying together.
....But, again the reinforcement system worked well, and a large draft was received, although few officers, which brought the Battalion back up to strength. There was, however, to be little time in which to absorb the newcomers, who "... were keen, but untrained in the very special methods the Somme fighting entailed.'"
The Battle of the Somme - Butte-de Warlencourt October 1916
"On 1 October orders were received to take over a bivouac area... in Mametz Wood....(after three days wait they spent one night back in the Flers Line) and then on the 6th October "orders were received to move into trenches in front of Eaucourt l'Abbaye in preparation for an attack the next day.... the objective was to be the Grid Line, a trench system which ran from Gueudecourt to Warlencourt. Incorporated in the defense was the infamous Butte de Warlencourt, a prehistoric mound of excavated chalk, which rose sharply to a height of 70 feet, and still stands to this day. The Germans had cunningly dug tunnels into it, constructing machine gun and observation posts, turning it into a veritable fortress. Below the Butte lay a covering trench, Diagonal Trench, which had only recently been spotted, having been in dead ground until the system around Eaucourt l'Abbaye had been captured. Diagonal Trench was to be the objective of the PORs, who would advance under a creeping barrage, the 7th and 15th Battalions passing through them to seize the portion of the Grid Line immediately to the right of the Butte.
At 1.45pm on the seventh the PORs once again went over the top. Unfortunately the creeping barrage proved to be spluttery.... The inexperience of the new draft also manifested itself in a tendency to bunch and pay more attention to the shellfire rather than the enemy to the front. As the leading companies breasted a slight rise, they noticed some bits of white rag tied to sticks in the ground, and passing through them triggered off intense machine gun fire from the Butte.
"There was not rattling roar of heavy and light field guns over our sector of the battle - only the fierce pattering of Jerry's machine guns cutting remorselessly at the handful of No 1 Company Post Office Rifles...I was bowled over, so were men on my left and right......"
The attack was halted in its tracks, and in no time at all the PORs had lost two-thirds of those engaged - forty killed, 160 wounded and 200 missing out of 650."
WILLIAM (1897-1916) was killed on 7th October 1916, aged 19, in one of the many disastrous and bloody battles of that stupid war. I checked the Battalion's war diaries at the War Records Office (grim, original notes handwritten in pencil) but the page for the day of the battle was missing - or maybe never written.
 |
| WILLIAM'S mother tried every way she could to find out what has happened to WILLIAM. She refused to believe he was dead and, along with many other mothers met every train bringing troops back from France to London in the hope he would return. |
WILLIAM (1897-1916) is buried in the War Graves Commission Cemetery at Warlencourt Cemetery. He was initially buried in Hexham Road Cemetery or nearby4, as Warlencourt cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens late in 1919 when the War Grave was created by bringing together the dead from small cemeteries and the battlefields of Warlencourt and Le Sars.
Initially I knew nothing about my great-uncle from Grandad, only stumbling upon the story during my research. I was regularly going to the Post Office Museum in King Edward Street, London5, around the corner from where I worked, to while away winter lunch hours. It wasn't until I saw a picture of the memorial in the former Post Office's lobby in a history book of the Post Office Rifles3 that I realised I had been walking past my great-uncles name each time I went there.
When I was given the family papers in 1997, a picture of the memorial appeared again with a letter to William's father dated 18th May 1920.The timing would have been uncomfortable for his family as this would have been received a few days after WILLIAM GEORGE (1877-1933)'s birthday.
William's name is listed on bottom left under Lance Corporals
and engraved on the monument itself.
The Monument in King Edwards Post Office Museum, London
(now closed) (1997)
(now closed) (1997)
A short walk away, the Church of St Botolph at Aldersgate aka 'The Postman's Church', holds a Book of Remembrance listing the Post Office Rifles who died serving their country. WILLIAM (1897-1916) is listed there with the date September 1917. I am not sure why that date would be there when he died in October 1916.
Post Office Rifle's area in St Botolph's Church (1997)
The inscription to WILLIAM (1897-1916) on his mother Sarah Annie (1878-1928)'s headstone also indicates that a least 10 years after the event, he was still, understandably, remembered.
WILLIAM GEORGE Snr (1877-1933) would have been 37 at the onset of the First World War. Maybe as a greengrocer his occupation prevented him for going to the war 6. I wonder how heavily that played upon his mind? None of WILLIAM's male siblings were old enough to serve in the war and as far as I know none of his older nephews were in the war.
Footnotes
1. Book of Remembrance entry for Lillian Norman 27 Oct 1974, Honor Oak Crematorium, London SE23 and written by William's younger brother ALBERT EDWARD (1904-1988) states '...sister of Willy,.....'
2. Post Office Archives, Appointment Record February 1915. 42151 Gilbert W. G., Learner (M) London
3.A History of the Post Office Rifles - 8th Battalion, City of London Regiment, 1914 to1918, The Naval & Military Press Ltd, Uckfield, UK, pages 11.13.
4."The only considerable burial ground moved into this cemetery was:- HEXHAM ROAD CEMETERY, LE SARS, on the West side of the Abbey grounds. (Hexham Road was the name given to the road leading from Warlencourt to Eaucourt. Le Sars was captured by the 23rd Division on the 7th October, 1916, and again by the Third Army on the 25th August, 1918.) This cemetery was used from November, 1916, to October, 1917, and contained the graves of 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom and 13 from Australia.
The cemetery now contains 3,505 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,823 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 55 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 15 casualties buried in Hexham Road Cemetery, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
5. The Museum has since closed. The memorial has been removed to St Albans.
6. Conscription for married men aged 17-51 was not law until April 1918. WILLIAM GEORGE (1877-1993) would have been 40 years old.
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