Name
George William English
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/04/1915
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
21464
Canadian Infantry
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 24 - 26 - 28 - 30.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
Son of the Rev. William Henry and Helen Annie English, of Paynton, Saskatchewan. He was born on the 23rd March 1896 in Hitchin. Before enlisting he was a bank clerk.
He enlisted in Vancouver aged 19. His enlistment papers confirm that he was 5’ 10” with a fair complexion with blue eyes and light coloured hair.
Wartime Service
By November 1914 he was reported as being in the Canadian Fusiliers. He had the Regimental Number 21464 in the 8th Battalion (Saskatoon) of the Canadian Infantry which was part of the 1st Canadian Division in the 2nd Army. The 8th Battalion was the Manitoba Regiment and according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission he was killed on the 24th April 1915.
Two days before his death the Canadians had bravely closed a gap in the line caused by the first gas attacks and were involved in severe fighting at St. Julien in the Ypres Salient. In a German gas attack the day before his death the Battalion behaved magnificently and though many were suffocated by gas, they defeated the attack and even gained some ground during the night of the 24th/25th. The line was established north of the hamlet of Fortuin south east of St. Julien despite it having been a day of dreadful muddle, impossible orders and appalling casualties.
He has no known grave, but is remembered on Panels 24, 26, 28 or 30 of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres in Belgium.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
