Name
George William Rayner
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/05/1915
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
15474
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 and 33.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Shingay cum Wendy Memorial, Cambs.
Pre War
George William Rayner was born in 1893 in Wendy, nr Royston, Herts and resident in Shingay, Cambridgeshire, the son of David and Emma Rayner. He was one of ten children, although two died in infancy.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Wendy, Cambs where his father was working as an agricultural labourer. He remained with his family at The Green [possibly The Grove], Wendy, nr Royston in 1911 at which time he was aged 17 and working as a farm labourer.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Royston and served with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in France from 27 April 1915. The Battalion war diary shows that a draft of three officers and 300 other ranks joined the battalion in the field at Ouderdom, near Hill 60, on 30 April. He was soon in action on 1 May when the enemy made a sudden attack on trenches with gas and shells in the early evening and all the men were violently sick, necessitating several to be admitted to hospital. They were attacked again with gas on 5 May, which killed a few men but all were badly affected. There was fierce fighting, not helped by the fact that their own artillery spent the whole day firing into some of their own trenches.
George was killed in action on 6 May 1915. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £6 17s 2d. His mother received a pension of five shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
web.archive.org
