The
Fallen of Ewhurst and Ellen's Green, Surrey
George Albert Denyer
Private G/5821
10th Bn The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment
Died in Hospital at Wimereux, 24/02/1917, aged 25
Buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery (II.E.4A)
Remembered on :
Ewhurst War
Memorial, Memorial Plaque and Book of Remembrance (1)
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment Roll of
Honour, Holy Trinity Church, Guildford
Private George Albert Denyer's Grave at
Wimereux, France
GEORGE ALBERT DENYER was born in 1892 in Ewhurst (2), the son of Thomas, a blacksmith, and Hannah Denyer. He was their second son, having an elder brother, Thomas William (b1890), and two younger sisters, Ethel (b1894) and Ada (b1898) (and possibly another brother born in 1903). George's elder brother, Thomas William Denyer, also served with the Queen's (RWSR) in the 1st Battalion and survived the war.
With the start of the First World War George, a butcher, enlisted in the army in Guildford, and attested into the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment at their depot at Stoughton Barracks on 25th April, 1915. His attestation paper indicates that his mother, Hannah, was his next of kin.
.gif){kind=small}
ACTIVE
SERVICE AND WOUNDED IN ACTION
Having completed his initial training in England, George went overseas on active service, joining his battalion in the field on 17th August 1915. He took part in the Battle of the Somme, receiving a shrapnel wound to his right arm, hand and face on 1st July 1916. On 13th July George was transferred to England.
RETURN
TO FRANCE
Fully recovered, George returned to France on 26th September 1916, and joined 10th (Service) Battalion The Queen's (RWSR) on 13th October 1916. The battalion had just been withdrawn from the Battle of the Somme to Bécordel. After various moves over the next few days they arrived in the area of La Clytte, where they remained unto the early months of 1917.
George was admitted to the Boulogne Base Hospital, but died of capillary bronchitis on 24th February 1917. He was buried in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery. On 25th June 1917, his personal effects, which were listed in his record file as an identity disc, correspondence, photographs, religious books, writing material, notebook, leather case & photograph, mirror (broken), badge, and knife were posted to George's mother at The Village, Ewhurst.
George was posthumously awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
Wimereux Communal Cemetery, shortly after
the War.
The gravestones at Wimereux are laid flat due to he sandy nature of the soil. The graveyard also contains the grave of the poet Lt-Col John McCrae, author of "In Flanders Fields".
Follow this Link to details about First World War Medals
Notes:
(1) Remembered in the Ewhurst Book of Remembrance as "Albert Denyer"
(2) Soldiers Died in the Great War
He attended a medical examination at Reigate on
14th May 1916 which observed that his age was 24, he was just short of 5
feet 7 inches tall and weighed 133lbs.
Other sources:
-
Book of Remembrance
-
Soldiers Died in the Great War
-
Personal Record of Pte Denyer (Public Records Office) WO363/D282
-
1901 Census
-
History of the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment in the Great War, Col H C Wylly, C.B.
Andrew Bailey, Ewhurst, Surrey
andy@ewhurstfallen.co.uk
Copyright©2005