| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
George Smith was born the 21 Jan 1890 the son of William Smith, a blacksmith, from the Bridlington area and Harriet Worledge, from Bewholme. George was the oldest of eight children, he was working as a “coal merchant’s rulleyman” or carter in 1911. On 9 Sep 1909 at Beverley Register Office he married a widow, Mary Ann Spivey, living at 4 Burgess Yard, Lairgate. They appear to have adopted a son, Ernest Collinson, born in 1909.
George enlisted at Beverley on 11 Dec 1915 and was mobilised on 11 May 1916, joining the Royal Field Artillery. A month later he was switched to the infantry, joining the 21st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. On 17 Oct 1916 he was transferred to the newly formed Machine Gun Corps and arrived in France on 17 Mar 1917. He served in the 215th Company of the MGC, in 1917 and would have been involved in the Battles of Arras and Cambrai. George left the army in early 1919 and was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
George lived at 64 St Andrew Street, Beverley, the 1939 Register records him as a coal merchant, living in Silvester Lane. In that year he and his wife both remarried: his second wife was Maria Walsh of Silvester Lane, Beverley. George died in 1949.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |