| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
George was born in Gleasborough, Rotherham, on 5 Sep 1880. He was one of five children born to Scotsman John Tolmie and his wife Mary. John was an ironworker and by the time of WWI the family was living in Spennymoor, Co. Durham. In the 1901 census George was recorded as being a North Eastern Railway worker, and boarding in Middlesborough.
On 24 Sep 1913 George was married at Beverley Minster. His wife was Alice McQue, born in 1886, whose father was a local tanner’s labourer of Sparkmill Terrace. Their first child, George, was born on Jun 1915; their second, Lester in 1917. At the time of George’s death Alice was living at 59, Mintfield Grove, Holme Church Lane, in Beverley. She never remarried and died in Croydon in 1956. Her two sons became policemen in Surrey.
George’s army records are rather patchy but his army career was a long one. George joined the East Yorkshire Regiment at an unknown date but by 1911 when he was stationed at Aldershot he was already a lance-corporal and promoted to the rank of corporal on 26 Apr 1911 in the 1st Battalion. He then spent time at Victoria Barracks in Beverley. He was an excellent marksman and gained educational qualifications. On 26 Dec 1914 he was appointed acting-regimental quartermaster sergeant-major of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the East Yorkshires where he would have been involved in administration and training in the Hull area. He later transferred to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was in the Auckland area of Durham when his second son was born in June 1917. He was later commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment, made permanent on 1 Aug 1918. He arrived in France on 8 Sep 1917 and was involved in the final battles of the war.
George Tolmie died of unspecified wounds at the Empire Hospital, St Vincent’s Square, Westminster in London on 19 Nov 1918. He was buried in a designated war grave at St Martin’s Cemetery in Beverley. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals. He is remembered on the Hengate Memorial but not on the East Riding Memorial in the Minster.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |