Name
George Robert (Robin?) Binstead
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/09/1918
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
639118
Canadian Army
156th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bengeo War Memorial Plaque Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo, Hertford Town Memorial
Pre War
Born on 24th June 1890, in Bengeo (Hertford in is enlistment papers), Hertford, to parents George and Martha. He was baptised on 7th September 1890, he was one of eight, and in 1911 he was living with his family at 10 Waterloo Terrace, Bengeo. His father was employed as a railway servant, shunter and George was a domestic gardener.
On 14th June 1913 he is on a passenger list on the SS Tunisian from Liverpool to Quebec, Canada. He married Emma Turner on 19th July 1915 in Brockville, Ontario, Canada.
He enlisted on 2nd December 1915, giving his address then as 66 Keefer Street, Bockville, Ontario and was working as an asylum guard. He was 5' 8" of slim build, with fair complexion, medium brown hair and blue eyes.
He appears to be mentioned of his father’s headstone in Holy Trinity Churchyard, grave 40 row 45, where his date of death is shown as 2nd September 1918, "killed in France" aged 28, but the event described above must raise doubts about this or whether headstone his his father's. However if it is then his brother in law was William Oswald Jefferys, who married George’s sister Elizabeth, is also mentioned on this headstone, he was killed in 1916 on the Somme.
Wartime Service
There are no records of George Robin/Robert Binstead on CWGC. According to his attestation papers he enlisted in Brockville, Ontario on 1/12/1915 and was posted to 156 Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force as Private 639118. Apart from that and his medical paper the only information we have comes from his separation allowance records which show that on 19/6/1916 he was AWOL, on 22/7/1916 he is shown as deserted and on 5/8/1916 he was discharged from the army as a deserter and his unit sailed to fight on the 17th October 1916.
His wife received separation allowance from April 1916 to August 1916, but this was then cancelled for obvious reasons.
These records are in the Canadian Military Archives and are available online.
Additional Information
He is not recorded on the CWGC database.
George is commemorated on the family headstone in Bengeo (Holy Trinity) Churchyard, his part of the inscription reads:
". . . ALSO GEORGE ROBIN (Binstead) THE DEARLY LOVED SON OF THE ABOVE (George Binstead) KILLED IN FRANCE SEPTEMBER 2ND 1918 AGED 28.
DEATH DIVIDES SWEET
MEMORIES EVER CLING (BELIEVED TO APPLY TO BOTH George (son) and William
(son-in-law)
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Terry & Glenis Collins, Marilyn Taylor, Jonty Wild
