Day 874. Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE GEORGE WILKINSON DAVISON 30463. Born on 10th September 1888, George was the third of four children to James and Jane Davison. He married Hilda Jane Smurfit in September 1914 and the couple lived at 17 Brookland Road, Sunderland with their daughter Maguerite. Originally joining the war effort as 12053 in the Army Cyclist Corps, George will have spent the first few months based at Chiseldon, a safe distance from the trenches, but the sapping of manpower caused by the bungled Somme campaign over the summer and autumn of 1916 meant that all able-bodied men were given a rifle and sent to the front. George was transferred to the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. I can find no proof of it, but I feel certain he will have joined them in time for Oppy Wood, and the bloodbath in front of those trees may have been his first taste of life on the Western Front. How that must have hit him. George was killed in action on 27th March 1918 during the early days of the German Spring Offensive and his body was never recovered; he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; a man of 29, a husband and a father.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 21:32:56 +0000
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