Name
George Henry Turner
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/07/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2304
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st/1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ
VII. G. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
George was the son of Henry and Mary Ann Turner born at 27 Knight Street in February 1898.
In the 1911 census he was recorded as a ‘Milk Errand Boy’. George had joined the Hertfordshire Territorials before the war and sometime between 27th January 1913 and 1st January 1914.
He was born and a resident of Sawbridgeworth, Herts., when he enlisted in Bishops Stortford.
Wartime Service
As a Territorial, George would have been mobilised for Home service at the outbreak of war. Territorial were not required to serve overseas but many volunteered immediately, We know that George did because he entered France with the Regiment on 6th November 1914.
George died of wounds on the 20th July 1916, On the 19th the war diary records "A party of about 3 Officers and 60 OR's raided the enemy's trenches at 10.40pm. The part of the trench that was raided had been evacuated by the Germans. The party was in the trenches for 10 minutes as arranged but was bombed from the support line. No prisoners were taken. Our casualties on the evening of the raid were 3 Officers wounded, 3 OR's killed, 1 OR missing, 12 OR's wounded."
It seems very likely that George 12 men wounded in this raid. George Turner is buried at Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France. He was aged 18.
Additional Information
His headstone does not appear to have an inscription, but the CWGC records note his mother as a contact. After George's death his mother was recorded at 27 Knight St., Sawbridgeworth, Herts, and his father had already died. George is mentioned in a very thorough biography for Jack Alfred Willmott by Paul Johnson, which appears in the website’s Archive section at: http://www.hertsatwar.co.uk/archives/hertfordshire-men-women-individuals-stories/jack-alfred-willmott-biography/
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Douglas Coe
