| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Lance-Corporal George Roden, aged 19, was killed in action in France on 24 Apr 1917. He arrived in France three months earlier and was serving in the 2nd/6th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment. George served as a runner and range finder for the artillery. The 2nd/6th had been shadowing the German withdrawal on the Somme to the more heavily fortified Hindenburg Line. On 24 April, according to their War Diary they were “in reserve” at Roisel when it seems George was killed by a German artillery attack, his death being “instantaneous”. According to his company officer, N G J Ellwood, in a letter to George’s parents printed in the Beverley Guardian of 12 May 1917.
“He had rendered good service to his company…….and was always cheerful and a ready and willing worker, and earned the esteem and confidence of his comrades, NCOs and officers”…
George’s body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the Somme. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
George was born in Beverley on 26 Mar 1898 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on 20 Apr 1898, the son of Thomas Watson Roden, house painter, and Edith, who married in 1885 and had 8 children. The family lived in Tigar Lane and then 126 Norwood. Before joining the army George was employed as a clerk to Henry Hodge, solicitor, at 5a Hengate. George didn't marry.
George is remembered on the Norwood Street Shrine, on the Beverley War Memorial, Hengate and on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |