Name
George Eldred
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/11/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
8670
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 and 33.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials,
Great Hallingbury Memorial (St Giles Church), Essex
Pre War
George Eldred was born in 1888 in Great Hallingbury, Essex to Frederick and Jane Eldred. On the 1901 Census they were living at Harps Gate, Great Hallingbury where his father was a horsekeeper on a farm and George was a houseboy. On the 1911 Census he was already a serving soldier in the 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment. Having served his time in the army, he joined the Great Eastern Railway in January 1913. He married Florence May Bass in early 1914 in Bishop's Stortford.
Wartime Service
As a reservist he was called up at the outbreak of war and served abroad from 16 August 1914 and was killed during the First Battle of Ypres. The Register of Soldiers' Effects states that he died of wounds at No. 7 Clearing Hospital, Poperinghe, however this may be inaccurate as he is named on the Menin Gate at Ypres which suggests his body was not found or not recovered for burial.
[HAW note: The No. 7 Clearing Hospital was in fact a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) in a school building. On 14 November 1914 it was very busy with an inadequate staff to cope with the 350 cases through that day. Most CCS would have had a burial plot nearby, the location of which may have been lost through shelling once the CCS moved location]
Additional Information
His wife Florence May received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £3 7s 7d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
