| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
George was born in Beverley in 1880, the only son of Thomas Neal (1852-1932) and his wife Fanny (1847-1903) who married in Hull in 1875. Thomas was a confectioner and baker with premises in Butcher Row where George grew up. Thomas remarried in 1909. George became a blacksmith and was apprenticed to Mr R Stephenson of Barmston. He married Rebecca Foster in 1901, Rebecca was born in Pocklington in 1880. They lived for a while in the Huggate area where their first child, Hilda May, was born in 1904. The family then moved to Co. Durham where George was employed as a blacksmith by the North Eastern Railway (NER) at the wagon works at Shildon. They lived at 36 Bouch Street and had a further four children there.
In 1908 George joined the Territorials in the 6th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. He was promoted to corporal in 1910 and sergeant in 1911. He signed on for another four years in 1912. At the outbreak of war George opted to serve abroad and on 20 Apr 1915 he arrived in France with the 50th Division. They were sent to the Ypres area in Belgium and took part in the Battle of St Julien in late Apr 1915. George was severely wounded, receiving severe facial burns and had his foot amputated. He was evacuated to No 11 General Hospital in Boulogne, where he died of wounds on 6 May 1915. He is buried at Boulogne’s Eastern Cemetery.
He was awarded the 1915 Star and the War and Victory Medals. George is commemorated on the Hengate Memorial and in Beverley Minster on the East Yorkshire Memorial.
George’s wife received a pensio, the family moved back to Beverley and lived at 44 Trinity Lane but were in financial difficulties. In Aug 1917 the family were given half the proceeds of a fund raising concert held in Beverley in aid of widows and dependents. Rebecca died in 1921 and is buried in Beverley, St Martin’s Cemetery. George is mentioned on her gravestone. |