Name
George Garner
1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/10/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3/8087
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 48 to 50.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor
Pre War
George Garner was born in 1885 in Boxmoor, Herts, the son of George and Ann Garner and one of eight children, although one died in infancy.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 39 Puller Road, Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a Day Labourer. George attended Boxmoor school and successfully completed five standards, leaving school on 30 January 1898.
His mother died in 1896 and his father remarried to widow Florence Barber in 1898 who had four children from her first marriage. The family had moved to Cowper Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead by 1901 and 16 year old George was working as a Saw Mill Labourer. George gained another two half-sisters in 1900 and 1902, Gertrude and Ellen.
In 1906 George enlisted with the Militia to supplement his income, joining the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, at which time he was living with his sister Lizzie and brother William at 5 Woodbine Cottages, George Street, Berkhamsted. Unfortunately he did not take to military service and his character was judged to be inefficient when he bought himself out after only two years in April 1908 for a payment of £1.
On the 1911 Census he was a boarder at the home of the Collins family in Sutton Road, Watford and working as a Wireman for the National Telephone Company (later the CPO).
His father later lived at 12 Puller Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war, having been in the Militia, George was mobilised and he enlisted in Watford in September 1914, re-enlisting with the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was initially posted to the 3rd Battalion for training and then transferred to the 7th Battalion. before being sent to France on 26 July 1915.
The rest of 1915 was relatively quiet, although the Battalion suffered some casualties, but the following year on 1 July 1916 George fought in the Battle of Albert (Somme Offensive), followed by the Battle of Bazentin Ridge where he was wounded and transferred back to England to recover.
Early in 1917 he returned to the Front and was posted to the 1st Battalion, being assigned to C Company. He saw action again in the Battle of Arras in the attack on La Coulotte in April and the Third Battle of the Scarpe in May.
In October 1917, the Battalion were near Ypres and fought in the Battle of Poelcapelle. They suffered heavy casualties of which George was one, and he was killed in action on 9 October 1917. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His sister Lizzie Foskett received a war gratuity of £14 and pay owing of £3 18s 4d. His father received a pension of four shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com.
