| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Herbert Gillyon, aged 23, was taken prisoner at Craonne, France, on 27 May 1918. Part of 50th (Northumbrian) Division, he served in the 1st/4th Battalion, “C” Company, of the Northumbrian Fusiliers. They had been sent to a quieter section of the line, to the NE of Paris, to recover but were the victim of Operation Georgette. They retreated in disarray and a large number of men, many from Beverley, were captured. Herbert was imprisoned at Friedrichsfeld and then Langensalza POW camps in Germany where conditions in 1918 were harsh with extreme overcrowding and major food shortages. After his release following the Armistice in November 1918, Herbert appears not to have returned home immediately and does not feature in the lists of freed POWs whose return that were covered at length in the Beverley Guardian newspaper. It seems that he was either co-opted or volunteered for the Royal Engineers with whom he served as a “pioneer” and arrived home later. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Herbert was born in Beverley the 6 Aug 1894 and baptised at St Nicholas’ Church the 30 Aug 1894. Herbert’s father Benjamin Gillyon was a waterman and later captain of a canal boat; his mother was Ann Gillyon (nee Glassby), they had thirteen children, not all of whom survived into adulthood. The family lived in Blucher Lane, Beckside. The 1911 census records Herbert as a mate on the canal boat “Onward” of Beverley at Adwick-on-Dearne, near Mexborough. After enlistment, Herbert married Annie Cocks of Holme on the Wolds at St Mary’s Church on the 25 Jun 1916. Annie's brother Robert Cocks was to be killed in action in March 1918.
After the war Herbert returned to Beverley and had four children: Arthur born 1922 and died 1927, JOan born 1923, Ethel born 1926 and Gordon born 1935. The family lived at 5 Foster’s Yard, Beckside. Herbert’s occupation at this time is unknown. He died in April 1966 and was buried at Queensgate Cemetery.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspaper |