| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information
George was born in Holme-on Spalding Moor in late 1883, one of three children born to George Blanchard (1856-1915) and his wife Bessie. George’s father had been an agricultural labourer but later became a railway platelayer. They lived on Station Lane in the village. By 1911 the family were living at Sutton Bank gatehouse near Hull where he worked as a railway gateman. George became a farm worker and in the 1901 census was working as a horseman at the farm of J H Smith in Shiptonthorpe. He then moved to Beverley working as a carter and labourer. On June 7th 1913 he was married at St Nicholas’ Church. His new wife was Gertrude Coulbeck, born locally in 1881. She lived at Albert Place on Blucher Lane in Beverley. Her father was a blacksmith. The couple lived on Beaver Road and then at 24 Eastgate by the time of the war. It seems that they did not have any children.
George enlisted in 1915/1916 joining the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment as a private. His army number indicates that he wasn’t from the early recruitment of the Hull Pals Battalion. His army documents are missing so it is difficult to chart his time in the war. In 1918 he was in France and had been switched to another regiment which was common at this time when manpower was in short supply. George joined the 12th and then the 2nd/4th Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, part of 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division. George was killed in action in unknown circumstances on July 20th 1918 and is commemorated on the Soissons Memorial in France. Between July 18th and 22nd 1918 the Battle of Soissons was fought on the Western Front by the French assisted by the recently arrived Americans and some units of the British army, part of a wider Aisne-Marne counter-offensive against the German 9th Army. George was awarded the War and Victory medals and is commemorated on the Hengate Memorial and the Minster’s East Riding Memorial.
George’s widow, Gertrude, returned to live with her parents at 4 Blucher Lane but in the 1939 register is recorded as being an inmate at the Broadgate Asylum near Walkington.
Includes information taken from census, military records, newspapers |