| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
George Dixon was born in Beverley on 5 Aug 1895, the second of two sons born to Ada Dixon of Beverley. George’s father is named as “James Henry Dixon” on his marriage register entry in 1916 but is not recorded on his birth certificate. Indeed Ada Dixon had been described as a “widow” in both the 1891 and 1901 census. George was brought up on Beckside, before the war, before 29 Holme Church Lane became the family home. George was employed as a tanner’s labourer before enlistment.
George was in the TA before the war and on 28 Oct 1915 at Scarborough he joined the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the “Beverley Terriers” given the number of men from the town who joined and who had been in the TA. George had risen to the rank of corporal by Dec 1917.He arrived in France in early Apr 1916 but was repatriated to the UK in mid July of that year with serious kidney disease, not returning until Jan 1917. He was wounded on 23 Apr 1917 at the First Battle of the Scarpe, opening action of the Battle of Arras. On 26 Mar 1918 in the midst of a general British retreat in the face of a surprise German offensive (“Operation Michael”) George was taken prisoner in the vicinity of Rosieres, west of the Somme, where he had possibly been part of a rearguard action that enabled the rest of his division to escape. He spent the rest of the war in captivity in Germany at the Stendal POW camp, some 75 miles west of Berlin, a work camp of 15000 men. George was awarded the War and Victory medals.
George married Emily Fredericka Hardy at Woodmansey Parish Church on 3 Jan 1916. Emily was born in 1896, the daughter of a farm labourer. During the war she moved to Bradford. On his return to the UK, George also went to Bradford and worked in the woollen mills as a “wool operative card grinder (sic)” according to the 1939 Register. He had four sons, the first, Sydney born in Mar 1920.
George died in Bradford in 1974, aged 79. Emily died in 1969.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |