Name
Haseley Albert George
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/10/1918
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
800836
Royal Field Artillery
H.Q. 295th Bde.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HEM COMMUNAL CEMETERY, NORD
A.2.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial
Biography
Haseley George was born in Great Haseley, Oxfordshire in June 1891, and in the 1891 Census was recorded as living with his mother, Elizabeth, lodging with Thomas Williams, a Wheelwright, living in Great Haseley. It is unknown where Haseley’s father, Albert George was living at that time. By the time of the 1901 Census, Haseley was living with his grand-father, James George, a Milk Vendor, and his wife Mary, at Tidenham in Gloucestershire.
The UK Railway Employment Records showed that Haseley was employed as a Lad Porter by the Great Western Railway at Panteg Station (near Pontypool), in February 1908, earning 14 shillings (70p) per week. He continued working with the Great Western Railway until April 1911, when he resigned. When he resigned he was employed as a Signal Porter, and worked at Cardiff Riverside Station, earning 20 shillings (£1 in today’s money).
It is not known when Haseley George enlisted, however he arrived at Abbots Langley with the Lincoln Royal Field Artillery (RFA) in August 1915, and on 15th April 1916 he married May Whittaker from the village at Watford. A son was born on 10th September 1917, and it is not known when Haseley departed Abbots Langley and arrived in France. He was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in July 1918, serving with the RFA. Haseley was shown as “killed by a shell” on 22nd October 1918 in the Commonwealth War Graves Records, and at that time his parents lived at the Plume & Feathers Hotel in Sherborne Dorset. In the 1911 Census his mother was recorded working in a hotel in Bournemouth, so was residing in the Dorset area, and it’s not known whether Haseley’s father had re-joined her at Sherborne, or if she had remarried. At the time of his death Haseley’s wife and child lived at Yew Tree Cottage, Abbots Road, Abbots Langley – the family home of her parents and the Whittaker family. The Abbots Langley Parish Magazine recorded Haseley’s death in November 1918-
“We have also just heard of the death of Albert George Hazeley (sic), RFA, killed in action in France”
The Magazine incorrectly recorded the name and the spelling of Haseley. In the following month (December 1918) the Parish Magazine added –
“Hazeley (sic) Albert George was killed by a shell on October 17th (sic). He came here with the Lincoln R.F.A in August 1915, and married Miss May Whittaker, and afterwards made this his home. He served continuously with the Forces until the time of his death. He was a good soldier, and a sincere Christian, and the letters his wife have received from France bear unanimous testimony to the high esteem in which he was held. His own officer writes of him ‘He did his duty, and did it well, and that is the highest that can be said of any man out in France ... I overheard a man say a few minutes after it happened " Well, if anyone is certain of going to heaven it is George’. That expressed in a few words what everyone else thought ... He was a gallant soldier, a man who did his duty, and one who stood by his country in her hour of need". He leaves a wife and a little son to mourn his loss”.
Haseley George was buried in the Hem Communal Cemetery (to the east of Lille) in France, and was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial.
Additional Information
Memorial
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
