Name
George Cripps
6 November 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/06/1919
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
77787
Royal Engineers
Signal Service Depot (Poona)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DELHI MEMORIAL (INDIA GATE)
Face 1.
India
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Not on the Boxmoor memorials
Pre War
George Cripps was born in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead on 6 November 1893, the oldest son of George and Catherine Cripps and one of 10 children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 9 Fisheries Cottages, Boxmoor where his father was working as a bricklayer's labourer. They remained at the same address in 1911.
He was educated at Boxmoor School from 1898 and left in 1906 to start work for brushmakers, G B Kent & Sons Ltd in Apsley. By the 1911 Census he had left G B Kent and was employed as a wooden box maker at Foster's Sawmills on Kingsland Road.
His address on enlistment was given as 29 Weymouth Street, Apsley.
Wartime Service
George volunteered in January 1915 in Hemel Hempstead and served with the Royal Engineers, going overseas in early 1916. He was attached to the Signals Division and spent much of his service in Afghanistan, the military base in Rawalpindi, India (now Pakistan) and the RE Signal Service Depot at Poona.
At the end of the war he was waiting to be demobilised and returned to England when he was killed in an accident, having been thrown from a horse. He died on 30 June 1919 and is buried in Hangu Cemetery, Delhi. He is also remembered on the Delhi Memorial (India Gate).
Additional Information
Brother to Thomas Cripps who served in the Royal Navy and died during the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1915. His mother received a war gratuity of £21 and pay owing of £56 2s 8d. She also received a pension of 10 shillings a week for life in respect of George and his brother Thomas.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com., hemelatwar.org., dacorumheritage.org.uk
