| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
George was born in 1890 in High Mowthorpe, the son of George Nicholson and Annie (nee Wilson), George senior was from Skipsea and Annie from Hutton Cranswick. George was involved in the farming industry, variously a farm foreman and then a farm baliff. The family moved to Driffield and then to Leconfield. George junior became an agricultural labourer but in 1911 he moved to Hull to work as a labourer at Hull Brewery. On 17 Jun 1911 he married Ruth Arnott at Leconfield Parish Church, they settled in Hull and by 1914 were living on Welbeck Street, Princes Avenue, Hull.
George was reported missing in action on 27 May 1918, he was a Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. On the 27 May the Germans launched a surprise attack in the Aisne region, the British retreated in disarray and in unknown circumstances George was awarded the Military Medal for bravery, posthumously as it would turn out. Whilst reported missing George had actually been taken prisoner by the advancing Germans but was seriously wounded. He was taken to a German military hospital in the Aisne, possibly near Laon, but he died there. Red Cross files indicate that he had been captured but not that he had died. Confirmation of his death did not appear in the Beverley Guardian until Jan 1919. He is buried at Sissonne British Cemetery in the Aisne. He was also awarded the War and Victory Medals. George is remembered on the Hengate Memorial in Beverley and on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |