Name
George Russell
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/10/1917
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
196684
Royal Horse Artillery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ALEXANDRIA (HADRA) WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY
D. 184.
Egypt
Headstone Inscription
LORD ALL PITYING, JESU BLEST GRANT HIM THINE ETERNAL REST
UK & Other Memorials
Great Gaddesden War Memorial,
Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials,
We are not aware of any memorial in Gaddesden Row
Pre War
George Russell was born in 1894 in Gaddesden Row, Great Gaddesden, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of William and Jane (nee Coote) Russell. On the 1901 Census the family were living at Gaddesden Row, Great Gaddesden, where his father was working as a shepherd on a farm. They remained there in 1911 at which time both he and his father were farm labourers (shepherds).
He married Annie Vickers Thompson at St Bridget's Church, Wavertree, Lancaster, nr Liverpool on 28 February 1915. His address prior to enlistment was 51 Brydens Camp, Hemel Hempstead. His widow later returned to Cockermouth where she was born and remarried to Joseph Cass in 1923.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Luton and served initially as a Private 138 with the Army Veterinary Corps, later transferring to the Royal Horse Artillery as Driver 196684.
There are few details as his Service Record may have been destroyed in WW2 bombing. He died from malaria in Alexandria, Egypt on 1 October 1917 and was buried in Alexandria War Memorial Cemetery.
Additional Information
His widow Annie received a war gratuity of £13 10s and pay owing of £7 0s 8d. Brother to Ernest Russell who served originally as Private 10992 Army Cyclist Corps and later as Private 52709 12th Battalion Durham Light Infantry He was killed in action at Passchendaele on 21 September 1917.
There is a family connection to Gaddesdon Row, but George may not have had a direct connection at the time of the Great War
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org.
