Name
George Herbert Hasting
21 Oct 1880
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/02/1915
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CITE BONJEAN MILITARY CEMETERY, ARMENTIERES
IX. B. 62.
France
Headstone Inscription
THOU THY WORLDLY TASK HAST DONE HOME ART GONE AND TA'EN THY WAGES
UK & Other Memorials
Aldenham School Memorial, Aldenham, Memorial Window, Halton, Lancs
Pre War
Youngest of 3 brothers.
George Herbert Hastings was educated at Aldenham, he had joined 3rd (Militia) Royal Lancaster Regiment in 1898 and he was gazetted to the Lancashire Fusiliers in May 1899 becoming Lieutenant in 1900 and Captain in May 1903 He sailed to South Africa in Dec 1899 and served throughout was at later stages was attached to Steinaecker’s Horse and was present at Relief of Ladysmith, Tugela Heights, Transvaal, Orange Free state, Spion Kop, Vaal Kranz and Laing’s Nek receiving both Queen’s South Africa Medal (5 clasps) and King’s South Africa Medal 2 clasps). Subsequently he served in Barbados, St Helena and again in South Africa. From 1906 1910 he was seconded to West African Frontier Force at Kumassi, Gold Coast.
He had been shipwrecked on the Devonshire coast in 1907 when returning from the Gold Coast
Wartime Service
He had been transferred to the Middlesex regiment in May 1908 when he joined 1st Battalion in India becoming Adjutant in Aug 1911 to 1914. He received the Durbar Medal while in India. In 1913 the Battalion were deployed to Aden.
He went to France on Active Service in 1914. He was in all the fighting in the retreat from Mons and was wounded in the lungs on Feb 4th 1915 and died the following day (5th) in a Field Ambulance Unit. He is buried in Armentieres, France.
A Brigadier writing of Captain Hastings said “at the end of October (1914) I recommended him for his excellent services and it is a matter of great regret that he, like many others, did not survive to see his name Mentioned in Dispatches. He was a most gallant, faithful, loyal to duty at all costs and unselfish. His loss is a severe one to the battalion to which he was devoted.”
Biography
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs Hastings, St. Wilfrid's House, Halton, Lancaster. ordered his headstone inscription: “THOU THY WORLDLY TASK HAST DONE HOME ART GONE AND TA'EN THY WAGES".
His eldest brother, John H Hastings became Rector of Halton, succeeding their father. The second son, William became a Surgeon RN.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Tony James
