Name
George Henry Skinner
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
266071
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Town Memorial, Christchurch Plaque, now in Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Born in 1895 in Hertford son of George Henry and Matilda Skinner and was living in 11 George Street, Hertford in 1901 and 1911.
He had two sisters and four brothers one of whom also served and died, his name was Frederick John. They were living at 11 George Street, Hertford, in 1911, where his father was employed as a bricklayer.
Wartime Service
Enlisted at Hertford. Joined the army in Hertford on 24th October 1914 in the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment and was posted to France on 27th March 1917.
Following this they were in training for the next big campaign, the 3rd Battle of Ypres.
On 31st July the British forces attacked German positions all along the Ypres salient, on the day the 1st Herts attacked with other troops the German position on the Pilckem Ridge.
The attack began at 03.50am and to begin with there were few casualties but as they approached their objective, the village of Langemarck, they came under heavy sniper and machine gun fire and on reaching the enemy wire found it almost intact.
Part of "C" Company managed to reach the German trenches but were forced to retreat when the enemy counter attacked, the battalion were then forced to retreat to their own lines having suffered heavy casualties, over 460 men, one of whom was George who was posted as missing, but his body was never recovered.
Additional Information
Brother of 2nd Corporal Frederick John Skinner who died in Egypt on 6 May 1919 and is also commemorated on both the memorials listed above.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Terry & Glenis Collins, Jonty Wild
