Name
George Sunman Samuels
1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/03/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
9004
Worcestershire Regiment
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 34.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Radlett memorials
Pre War
George Sunman Samuels was born in Radlett, Herts in 1884, the son of Alfred and Sarah Samuels, and baptised there on 7 September 1884.
On the 1891 Census, the family were living in Hatfield Road, St Albans where his father was working as a Gardener. They remained there in the the 1901 Census and George was working as a plumber. In 1911 George was a boarder with the Newman family at 84 London Road, St Albans and working in the Rubber Factory. He had moved to Birmingham on enlistment.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Birmingham on 19 August 1914 and served in the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. He was appointed Lance Corporal on 8 October 1914 and posted to France on 2 November 1914. He was later deprived of his stripe and reverted to Private on 1 January 1915. He was listed as missing on 12 March 1915 and death was presumed.
He died during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the attack on Spanbroekmolem. On 12th March the battalion had been in assembly trenches all day and were very wet. At 4.10 p.m. the leading company left the trench followed by the second company. They came under heavy rifle and machine gun fire and suffered heavy casualties but succeeded in occupying part of the front German Trench but then were hit by their own artillery dropping a high explosive shell which killed and wounded several and scattered the remainder. The weather was foggy and bad for observation. There were 155 British dead.
Additional Information
He gave his friend John Skeet as his next of kin at 66 Chattaway Street, Birmingham. The register of soldiers' effects shows that no one claimed his war gratuity of £3 or pay owing of £25 4s 15d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
