Name
George Gates
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/04/1917
43
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/20049
Royal Sussex Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY, ARRAS
VI. G. 47.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, 4 Co' Hertfordshire Reg' Territorials’ Memorial, Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Knebworth Village Memorial
Pre War
His home address was 8 Bucklersbury, Hitchin. Son of George Gates, of Knebworth, Stevenage, Herts; husband of Martha Elizabeth Gates, of Diddington, Buckden, Hunts
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford into the Hertfordshire Regiment and received the Regimental Number 2738. Later he was posted to the l/6th Battalion of the Gloucesters, Territorial Force with the Number 39562. This Battalion was in the 144th Brigade being part of the 48th Division of XVIII Corps in the 5th Army. In November 1916, it was reported that he had been wounded.
The Battalion War Diary shows that on the 10th April 1917 they were in a location know as Guilford Trench, on the outskirts of Monchy-le-Preux. There is no indication of what happened to George Gates as the unit were in the process of returning to caves on the Cambrai Road. It is possible that he was the victim of shellfire.
The ‘Soldiers died’ database states that he ‘died’, which suggests that he had either suffered illness or an accident but a 1917 newspaper states that he was reported as missing. The day of his death was during the Battle of Poelcappelle when his Battalion was engaged in fierce fighting against shell, snipers, machine-guns and mud near Reutel Village in the Ypres Sector.
A very succinct article on the 26th of May 1917 in the Hertfordshire Express reported his death:
"News has been received of the death of Private George Gates, Royal Sussex Regiment, of Knebworth, who was killed in action on April 10."
Although his original grave was located near the corner of Rue De Cambrai in Arras his body was later re-interned in the Faubourg D’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
