Name
George Clements
8 February 1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
29478
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. MARTIN CALVAIRE BRITISH CEMETERY, ST. MARTIN-SUR-COJEUL
I. A. 31.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock
Pre War
George Clements was born in Baldock on 8 February 1888, the son of Walter Field and Emma Clements. He was registered with the surname Clements as his parents did not marry until 1 December 1889. He was baptised on 21 July 1889 at Baldock.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Norton End, Baldock, where his father was working as a plate layer on the railway.
He married Rhoda Elizabeth West on 23 January 1909 in Baldock and they were living at Bygrave Yard, Baldock on the 1911 Census with their young son Charles William George who was born on 25 July 1909. George was then working as a labourer in a motor foundry. They had four more children, Stanley (1911), Vera (1914), Rhoda (1915) and Francis (1916).
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hitchin and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, serving with the 2nd Battalion in France.
George was killed in action on 11 April 1917, during the Battle of Arras, and is buried in St Martin Calvaire British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His widow, Rhoda, received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £1 0s 2d. She also received a pension of £1 10s 3d a week.
Rhoda died in 1920 and Mrs Phyllis Gertrude Langham was appointed Guardian of the youngest child, Francis Jack. On the 1921 Census, her children, George, Vera and Rhoda (then orphans) were listed as boarders at the home of Robert and Annie Durman at The Barley Mow public house at Clothall, nr Baldock.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson
