MY WAR DEAD
GRANGER, George - died 4th October 1917.
George Granger ws born in Clerkenwell, London, in the latter part of 1887, being the fourth known son of Samuel Granger, a furniture salesman, and his wife who was born Celina Jane Harris. At the time of the 1911 census, he was living with his widowed mother in Tottenham, north London, and working as a house painter. George's father had died in 1907, aged 55 and 5 of his 10 siblings had also died by 1911.
George attested for military service at Tonbridge, Kent, on 3rd September 1914 when he was aged 26. He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment at Gravesend on the same day, but his subsequent service is unclear. He was probably posted to the 3rd Battalion in England until December 1915 when he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion; it is likely that he was sent to India and remained there until 10th May 1916. During this time, he suffered from rheumatic fever and was hospitalised in various places between 28th January and 12th April 1916. The record appears to indicate that he was then returned to England and further hospitalised at the Military Convalescent Hospital in Epsom from 11th May until 10th June 1916, from when he was on 'sick furlough" until 19th June and from then posted to the 9th Battalion where he remained until 18th September. George's record indicates that he had a further period of illness, spending time at the 2nd Western General Hospital in Leeds before being granted a further 'sick furlough' from 13th to 22nd November 1916, during which time he married Ivy Clarissa Weeks in Sevenoaks, Kent.
George and Ivy can have had no more than a few days together as he was posted to the 3rd Battalion on 23rd November 1916 and to the 1st Battalion, then in France, on 9th January 1917; he was appointed lance corporal on 21st March 1917. George was presumed killed in action on 4th October 1917, aged 30, at the Battle of Broodseinde, part of the 3rd Battle of Ypres; his body was either not recovered or not identified and he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium. George was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He left an informal 'Soldier's Will', dated 25th January 1917, and in which he bequeathed all of his personal property to his wife, Mrs G Granger, of Sevenoaks, Kent.
George was the brother of Samuel William Granger who had died a few months earlier and he was the 7th child of his family to die; 2 other brothers also served in the First World War, both joining the RAMC, both suffering wounds or illness, though both survived. Another brother died in Canada in 1920, leaving his widowed mother with only 2 of her 10 children living. George's widow lived on until 1978 but never remarried.
George Granger was my 2nd cousin, three times removed.