Name
George Bunyan
12/08/1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
The name of George Bunyan appears in the Hertfordshire Express of July 11th 1914, which reports him as a member of the organising committee for the Pirton Transept Fête.
George appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born August 12th 1888 to Alfred and Ann Bunyan (née Pitts). The number of children they had is confusing as the 1911 census records that there were seven, who all survived, but from various census records there appears to be eight, George and Albert (b 1888 - twins), Alice (b 1892), Eva Rose (b 1896), Clara (b 1898), Lilian (b 1900), Arthur Charles (b c1905) and Gladys Anne (b c1909).
Baptism records indicate another three Gertrude Kate (b 1886), Rosetta Kate (b 1891, d 1891) and Frederick John (b 1894, d 1899), but Gertrude’s parents are recorded as Alfred and Amy, but as no corresponding records were found corroborating this, it was assumed that Amy should have read as Ann. However, it is possible that there was another couple, Alfred and Amy, in Pirton at the same time and if so there is a possibility that some records have become confused.
School entrants’ records suggest that he was probably born in Palmer’s Row (the row of cottages opposite the pond, built by Sam Allen, but later, after being bought by Mr Palmer, known as Palmer’s Row).
The Parish Magazine of February 1917 records George as being ‘called up’ and in June 1917 as serving in the Royal Naval Air Service. He would have been twenty-eight and was married. He had married Alice Louisa Smith on November 14th 1908 and they had at least one child, a fact revealed by their headstone in St. Mary’s churchyard, which records George as a father. George and Alice are both buried in the churchyard, so it is likely that they lived in Pirton for the rest of their lives. George died on April 6th 1956, aged sixty-seven and Alice on July 4th 1961, aged seventy-one.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
