Two sad deaths

 

The third person in my series on Remembrance is Lance Corporal George Anderson. George was my wife’s first cousin twice removed and was born in Sheffield in 1889.

 

George was a labourer, married with two children when war broke out in August 1914. The family lived in the Shalesmoor area of Sheffield, just off Penistone Road.

 

George enlisted in the 7^th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment on 11^th September 1914, barely a month after war was declared. He was part of a wave of enthusiastic enlistment by thousands of men at a time when everyone was saying the war would be over by Christmas.

 

According to his service record, George was based in England up to 12^th July 1915, when the battalion was sent overseas and took up positions in the Ypres Salient. The battalion was part of 50^th Brigade, 17^th Northern Division.

 

George must have been a good soldier and was promoted to Lance Corporal, in the field, on 18^th February 1916.

 

During the spring of 1916, the 17 Northern Division was involved in the fighting at the Bluff which was south east of Ypres on the Comines Canal.

 

By July 1916, the battalion had moved to the Somme and on 1^st July 1916 the 17^th Northern Division was positioned on the front line in the area around Fricourt.

 

The battalion war diary describes the actions between 1^st July and 10^th July 1916. On 10^th July the battalion formed part of an attack that took place south east of Mametz Wood in an area described as Quadrangle Alley. During this attack, George was shot and wounded and suffered a compound fracture of the right femur. He was transferred to the 24^th General Hospital in Etaples, on the Channel coast.

 

Lance Corporal George Anderson, 7^th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, died on 20^th July 1916 in the 24^th General Hospital and is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery. His wife received a pension of 15 shillings a week.

Amongst George’s service papers is a death certificate and note. The death certificate is for his daughter, Mary Hannah, who died in Sheffield Royal Infirmary on 19^th December 1915, from shock and burns sustained from her nightdress catching fire at an unguarded bedroom fire. The note states that George was to be reimbursed 2s 7d for the certificate. That must have been a very sad Christmas that George spent in the trenches in 1915.