Name
George Ryall
1900
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/11/1918
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
TR/10/161742
The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
53rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HITCHIN CEMETERY
North East Grave 606
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Underneath are the everlasting arms
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin, British Schools Museum Memorial, Hitchin
Pre War
George was born in 1900 in Potton Beds. his parents were Arthur and Florence Ryall (née Pratt) and they married in 1899 in the registration district of Biggleswade.
In 1901 Arthur (23) appears to be boarding with the Davies family at 208 Albany Road, Camberwell, London and working (perhaps training) as a parchment maker, while his wife (27) and George (6 month) were recorded as visitors at the home of William and Julia Pratt – probably her parents, at 50 Mill Road. Leighton Buzzard
By 1911 the family were living at 48 Bunyan Road, Hitchin. Present were both parents, Arthur still working as a parchment maker. The census recorded they had been married for 12 years with 4 children, all living. George had been joined by siblings Doris (8), Albert (6) and Kathleen (1).married (née).
He has an entry in the National Roll of the Great War – these were normally placed by family members using what they knew and are not always 100% correct, but this notes that he enlisted in October 1918.
Officially he was recorded as born in Potton in Bedfordshire, enlisted in Hertford and resided in Hitchin.
Wartime Service
His Regimental Number was TR161742 and he joined the army on the 23rd October 1918 and was stationed in St. Albans in the 53rd Battalion of the Regiment.
He contracted influenza whilst training at the Regimental Depot and was sent to St. Albans Military Hospital where he died of pneumonia.
He was a boyhood friend of Harold Barker, they enlisted on the same day a– their numbers are just 8 apart. They died in the same hospital within 24 hours of each other and are buried in the same cemetery.
He is buried in Hitchin Cemetery Grave NE 606. His Commonwealth War Graves Commission stone bears the additional inscription "Underneath are the everlasting arms".
Additional Information
His pension cards record, his mother, as his next of kin, living at 49 Bunyan Road, Hitchin, Hitchin.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
