Name
George James Hance
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/08/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3281
Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
2nd/1st Bucks Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LAVENTIE MILITARY CEMETERY, LA GORGUE
II. F. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE GAVE HIS LIFE A WILLING SACRIFICE HE WAS FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
George James Hance was born 1898 in Tring to Robert Hance, groom/gardener, and Alice (nee Johnson).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Robert (born 1894), Elsie (born 1896), George, William (born 1901) were living at 22, King Street, Tring.
On the 1911 the family of parents, Robert Elsie (draper’s assistant), George and William were still at King Street, Tring.
Wartime Service
George enlisted as a Territorial Soldier in the 1/1 Buckinghamshire Battalion of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry in late 1914 while underage as Private 3281. He went to France on 17 Aug 1915 to join 2nd Battalion of Ox & Bucks in the Field.
The 2nd Bn Ox and Bucks went to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division, I Corps) in Aug 1914. Throughout the Great War the battalion played an active role on the Western Front, participating in many of the campaigns of 1914, & 1915 that typically resulted in heavy casualties. By 1916 the Battalion was on the Somme Battlefield to take part in the Battle of Delville Wood (15th Jul–3 Sep 1916), a series of actions that took place during the Somme offensive . It was during on of those actions that George was killed on 26 Aug 1916.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £7 and arrears of £5 19s 1d was paid to his father. Brother Willian Daniel serve d as 16122 in 2/4 Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) from Aug 1918 and Royal Engineers (Signals) in Cologne , Army of Occupation until demobbed in Mar 1920.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
