Name
George Charles Butcher
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/12/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Serjeant
13626
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY
IXA. L. 17.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Great Gaddesden War Memorial, Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials
Pre War
George Charles Butcher was born in 1893 in Long Melford, Suffolk, the son of George and Sarah Ann Butcher. On the 1901 Census, the family were living at 73 Bury Road, Hemel Hempstead, Herts where his father was working as a Pearl Life Assurance Agent.
He was educated at Piccotts End School. Hemel Hempstead and was a former member of Miss Florence Halsey's Bible Class and second scoutmaster to the Boxmoor Troop.
By the 1911 Census he had moved to Coventry where he was boarding at the home of James and Emily Sline at 93 Stoney Stanton Road and working as a Milling Machinist.
Later he was employed on the Leyland shipping line and was on board the cargo ship 'Columbian' which caught fire in Atlantic Ocean off Sable Island, Nova Scotia on 3 May 1914, was abandoned by her crew and sank in the Atlantic. Thirteen were rescued ' by Seyditz', fourteen rescued by 'Manhattan' and a third lifeboat with 16 crew was reported missing, but was discovered on 17 May by USRC Seneca (an American Revenue Cutter Service ship) with only five survivors. It was reported locally that George and others survived despite spending three days in the water.
He married Augusta Davies in 1916 in Hampshire. She initially gave her address on pension records as the Infirmary, St Pancras Schools, Abbots Langley, Herts and later Daraan, Connaught Road, Fleet, Hants. She married William Brown in Basingstoke in 1929.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford in September 1914 and served with 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment and was promoted to Lance Sergeant.
Local records suggest he was wounded 7 times and and gassed once. He was killed in action at Hooge Crater on 24 December 1917, aged 24, and buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £16 and pay owing of £8 2s 7d. She also received a pension of 15 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org.
