Name
George Kirby
1878
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/03/1917
38
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33806
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MAROC BRITISH CEMETERY, GRENAY
I. P. 30.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Christchurch Memorial, Chorleywood, Memorial Hall Plaque, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth UDC Memorial, Roll of Honour, Wilburton Cambridgeshire
Pre War
George was born in Wilburton, near Haddenham in Cambridgeshire in 1878, the youngest child and only son of James, an agricultural labourer, and Sarah Ann Kirby.
He was brought up in Haddenham but in 1901 was living in Hatch End, Middlesex, working as a gardener and lodging with another gardener and his family. Whilst living there he met Kate Rickett who was a servant at Woodridings in Pinner, but originally from Bucks Hill, Hertfordshire. They married at All Souls, Harlesden and had a son, George, born about 1904. Later they moved to The Stables, Ladywalk, Heronsgate, where George was employed as a domestic coachman to George Carey Foster, the retired eminent professor of physics of University College, London. Another son, Dennis Arthur, was born in 1912.
Wartime Service
George Kirby was probably was conscripted at the age of 37 and enlisted in the Bedfordshire Regiment at Bedford in the summer of 1916.
The 8th Battalion were engaged in the Battle of the Somme. In March 1917 the Battalion were in the trenches from 9-13th and from 20-16th. They suffered heavy mortar artillery fire by day and machine gun fire by night. No casualties were reported on the 29th March so it is possible that George died from wounds from earlier action.
Additional Information
The inscription on his gravestone reads "PEACE PERFECT PEACE". His soldier’s effects, totalling £5 3s 8d, were left to his widow, Kate. Probate records show that he also left a sum of £124 to his widow, Kate Kirby.
Acknowledgments
Pat Hamilton
Malcolm Lennox
