Name
George Thomas Deayton
1st April 1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/08/1917
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
233960
Royal Field Artillery
'A' Battery, 103rd Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
AEROPLANE CEMETERY
Plot III, Row A, Grave 32.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
"SLEEP IN PEACE, BELOVED ANGELS GUARD THEE KATH"
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Watford, Benskin's Brewery Memorial, Watford, Watford Grammar School Memorial, Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance, St Matthew’s Church Memorial, Oxhey
Pre War
George Thomas Deayton, born in Watford, Herts, on 1 April 1887 in Watford, and baptised 11 May 1887 at St Mary’s, Watford, son of Thomas Harry/Henry Deayton, a Railway Clerk and Kate Deayton (nee Halsey), the eldest of six children.
His parents married 4 December 1886 at St Mark’s, Regent’s Park, London. Thomas died 8 December 1938 in Watford aged 79, and was buried 12 December in Vicarage Road Cemetery, Watford; Kate died 1 January 1940 in Watford, and was buried 4 January, also in Vicarage Road Cemetery.
1891 Census records George aged 4, living with his parents and 9-month old sister, Dorothy, at 74 Sutton Road, Watford.
George attended Watford Boys’ Grammar School from 5 September 1899 to July 1902.
By 1901 George, his parent’s, sisters Dorothy, Elsie, Hilda and brother Arthur, had moved 72 Sutton Road, Watford.
After leaving school, George was employed as a clerk at Benskin's brewery in Watford.
On the 1911 Census, a brewery clerk aged 24, he still lived in Watford, with his parents and five siblings.
On 30 September 1912 George married Kathleen Gladys Doughty the daughter of Ronald Thomas Doughty a Master Tailor, at St John the Baptist Church in Pinner, Middx. They had two children, Geoffrey, and Kenneth.
Wartime Service
When war broke out George enlisted in Watford, posted to the Royal Field Artillery, and served as Corporal 233960 on the Western Front.
George died of wounds he received in action on 10th August 1917, aged 30, at 55th Field Ambulance, in Belgium.
He is buried at the CWGC Aeroplane Cemetery in Belgium. George is commemorated on the memorial at St Matthew’ Church, Oxhey.
He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals.
Additional Information
The published Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance entry reads:
“DEAYTON, GEORGE THOMAS. School period: September, 1899, to July, 1902. Corporal, R.F.A. Died of wounds received in action in the Ypres Salient, 10th August, 1917.”
There is an article about and a Death announcement for George in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 25 August 1917. The value of his effects were £7-19s-2d, Pay Owing and £4, War Gratuity, which went to his widow Kathleen. Son of Thomas Harry and Kate Deayton, of Watford; husband of Kathleen Gladys Gillings (formerly Deayton), of 59, Oxhey Avenue, Watford. His wife Kathleen remarried in 1920, to Victor De Fue Gillings and they lived at ‘Hylands’, 59 Oxhey Avenue, Watford. She ordered George's headstone inscription: "SLEEP IN PEACE, BELOVED ANGELS GUARD THEE KATH". Unfortunately, George’s Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
