| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
George William was born in Thirsk in Oct 1882, one of five sons of George and Emma Hawes. He attended Bishop Burton school along with his sister Edith Annie and his brother Albert Edward from 1892 until he “left for service” in 1895. In the 1901 census, aged 19, he was living and working as a labourer on a farm at Sancton.
In 1902 he enlisted in the East Yorkshire Regiment for three years, after which he became a reservist. He was living in Masham in 1911, employed as an “estate labourer”, and in Apr 1914 he re-enlisted. His photograph was published in the Beverley Guardian 18 Sep 1915, along with three of his brothers who were all serving soldiers, together with a photograph of their father. He embarked for France in Sep 1914, but in Oct 1915 he embarked at Marseilles for Alexandria, and then on to Salonika. In May 1916 he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, 83rd Company still in Salonika where he served until the end of the war, being discharged in Apr 1919 to become a ‘Z’ reservist.
George William Hawes, aged 34, bachelor, Gunner 48200, Machine Gun Corps married Catherine Eliza Bushby, aged 31, Spinster, at St George’s Hall & Schools, St. Olave, London, on 22 Jul 1917. George and Catherine had three children, and the 1939 Register shows the family living in Roxby, Lincolnshire, George was employed as a farm labourer. George died in Hull in Sep1960, at the age of 78
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |