Name
George Brown
1876
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/02/1918
41
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
65492
Labour Corps
110th Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 160 and 162A and 163A.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
NA but see 630448 A Brown
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, St Lawrence's Church Memorial, Abbots Langley, Church of Ascension Memorial, Bedmond, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Leavesden Asylum/Hospital War Memorial, Leavesden, Leverstock Green Village Memorial, Leverstock Green National School Memorial (lost?), Leavesden Asylum/Hospital War Memorial, Leavesden, Diocese - Book of Remembrance, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Diocese of St Albans - ROH, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Not on the Harpenden memorials, We are not aware of any memorial in Pimlico
Pre War
Wartime Service
Biography
George Brown was not recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour throughout the War, however he was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial, and his name was included on the head-stone of a family grave at St Lawrence Church, Abbots Langley, along with two of his brothers who also died in the Great War.
Tracing George has been difficult. The inscription on the family grave indicated that he died on 19th February 1918, and that he served with The Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment). Initially it was not possible to confirm this information with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) database. Subsequently a family record indicated that he died on 16th February 1918, and was commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial near Ypres. As a result George has been located in the Tyne Cot listings, serving with the 110th Company of the Labour Corps. The Tyne Cot record noted that he died on 16th February 1918.
George Brown was born in 1876 in Cherry Tree Lane, Wood End, near Redbourn, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., and baptised at St Mary's Church, Redbourn on 7 January 1877. The son of James Brown, a farm labourer, and Mary Anne (nee Moody). On the 1881 Census, aged 4 he was living at 83 Wood End, Redbourn, with his parents, his two older brothers William (born 1874) and John (born 1875), sister Rose (born 1879) and younger brother Arthur (born 1881). George attended Leverstock Green village school from age 5 when the family moved to Westwick Row, Leverstock Green in 1882. On the 1891 Census, an agricultural labourer aged 14, George lived in Leverstock Green, Herts, with his parents and now had younger brothers David (born 1886) and Frederick (born 1890), and sisters Mary (born 1883) and Libey (born 1888). The family moved again in 1894 to East Lane in Bedmond, Abbots Langley On the 1901 Census, a horse man, as was his father, on a farm aged 24, George lived in East lane, Bedmond, Herts, with his parents, brothers Arthur and David, together his younger sisters Ellen (born 1893) and Annie (born 1895).
On 6th September 1902 George married Elizabeth Allen from High Wood Hall Farm at Abbots Langley. On the 1911 Census, a general labourer at an institution (Leavesden?), aged 34, he still lived in Bedmond, with his wife and children Minnie (1903), Henry (1905), Dorothy (1906), Arthur (1907), David (1910), Frederick (1911). There would be further children, Horace (born 1912) Albert (born 1913) and Francis (born 1914).
His service record lists his employment as Farm Labourer on enlistment, but he also worked at the Leavesden Asylum. He was said to be living at Pimlico, Hemel Hempstead. [Pimlico is an area of Bedmond).
George, aged 39, attested on 22 Nov 1915 in London (under the Derby Scheme, by which you could defer mobilisation), and was placed on Army Reserve (possibly as 45440 Royal Fusiliers) until mobilisation on 27 Jun 1916. He was posted to Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment on 1 Jul 1916 as Private 17102. He was transferred to the 2nd Infantry Labour Company attached to the Middlesex Regiment on 17 Nov 1916 and joined the British Expeditionary Force on 25 January 1917. When the Labour Corps was created in early 1917, George was transferred again to 110th Company, Labour Corps on 9 May 1917 as Private 65492 – this was usually as a result of a man being judged not fit enough for fighting duty.
The Labour Corps cooked, cleaned, carried and cared for the soldiers on the front line and behind the lines. They built roads and railways, carried the wounded and buried the dead. They often worked within range of enemy guns and many were wounded and killed.
It is not known why he was not listed in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour at any point throughout the War. However he died on either 16th or 19th February 1918 (CWGC is 16th) and was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial, and on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing at Zonnebeke, Belgium. He was also commemorated on the Memorial at the Church of the Ascension at Bedmond.
George’s brother Frederick survived the War, however two other brothers, Alfred and David both died in, or as a result of the War, and are commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial.
Additional Information
*1 His brother Arthur who is buried in Abbots Langley has a CWGC headstone that bears the inscription requested by his mother to his brothers, George and David who also died, it reads:
“ALSO IN MEMORY OF 103493 L. CPL D. BROWN SHERWOOD FORESTERS KILLED IN FRANCE 20 OCT. 1918 AND 17102 PRIVATE G. BROWN THE QUEEN’S KILLED IN FRANCE 19 FEB. 1918 GREATER LOVE”
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org,, google.com/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk., www.hemelheroes.com
