George Brown

LEVERSTOCK GREEN WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918

GEORGE BROWN 1876 - 1918

George Brown was born in 1876 and baptised in Redbourne church on 7th January 1877, the third of eleven children to Mary Anne and James of Cherry Tree Lane, Wood End, Redbourne, Wood End is an area between Leverstock Green and Redbourne. James an agriculture labour from Kings Walden with wife Mary Ann Moody a local girl from Redbourne married during the late autumn of 1873. 

George attend Leverstock Green village school when he was aged 5, this coincided with the families move from Wood End to Westwick Row in 1882. After leaving school aged 12, George started his working life as an agricultural labour. Around 1894 the family moved to East Lane in Bedmond, here Annie the last of the children was born in 1895.

George who worked with horses, married Elizabeth Allen, from High Wood Hall farm in the parish church of Abbots Langley on 6th September 1902. George and Elizabeth lived at Bedmond on the 1911 census, but had moved to Pimlico by 1915.

 At the time of his death, George left behind eight children.

Minnie Florence born 1903

Henry George born 1905

Dorothy May born 1906

Arthur Ernest born 1907

David William 1910

Frederick James born 1911

Horace Reginald born early 1912

Albert Edward born spring 1913

By 1914 George was employed at the Leavesden Asylum and it was whilst working here he registered for military service on 22nd November, 1915 at Watford, this enlistment centre was a sub area for London. George was not taken by the army straight away but mobilized by the army, seven months later. First posted to the Royal West Surrey regiment as private 17102, transferred to the Middlesex Regiment during November 1916 and going over to France the 25th January 1917. The Hemel Hempstead  gazette for January 19th 1917 stated that 165 men who had worked in the Leavesden Asylum were now serving with the armed forces. 

On 22 February 1917 an Army Order formed the Labour Corps, turning the pre-existing Infantry Labour Companies and Infantry Labour Battalions into 203 Labour Companies. George, service number 65492, was a soldier serving in the 110th Labour company. The 110th company were transferred between the various British army's in France, working were ever needed the most. By December 1917 the 110th are working for the Fourth Army in the Ypres area, of Belgium. 

George was killed in action, on 16th February 1918, serving with 110 company, Labour Corps, aged 41 years, he was the oldest man to be killed by enemy action during the war from Leverstock Green. 

On the 16th February, 3 soldiers were Killed in Action from the 110th Labour Company, this company had suffered no deaths the week previous or in the following week, one of the three soldiers was buried in a marked grave next to a main road, a few miles east of the town of Ypres, the other two are missing. It is probable the three were killed by shelling and possible buried, but two graves were later lost.

The army records for soldiers died give Georges birth address as Wood End, Dedbourne, Northants. There is no place in England as Dedbourne but if you take the road between Leverstock Green and Redbourne you will pass through an area called Wood End.

MEMORIAL

George was killed in action and has no known grave and is remembered on panel 160, 162A and 163A of the Tyne Cot memorial in Belgium. He was also named on the order of service for the parish church at Easter 1919, the village war memorials of Leverstock Green and Abbots Langley, the Leverstock Green village school memorial the Hemel Hempstead town memorial and Leavesden Asylum memorial in the Watford Museum.

Tyne Cot Memorial (Tyne Cot Cemetery)

The Tyne Cot Memorial forms a boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery (the largest of all cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). The names of some 35000 "missing" men, who died after August 1917, are inscribed on panels arranged by regiment on the rear wall of the cemetery. The Memorial was designed by Sir Herbert baker. The name Tyne Cot is thought to have been coined by Northumbrian troops attacking the area who thought the blockhouses looked like Tyneside workmen's' cottages.

 At the beginning of the Great War tasks such as moving stores, repairing roads, building defences were carried out by the fighting soldier when he was withdrawn from the Front Line for rest. As the war progressed and the army enlarged it was realised that far more men were needed and that this method meant the fighting man often returned to the Front tired and not rested.

In February 1917 the British Army’s Labour Corps was formed. Manned by men who were either ex-front line soldiers who had been wounded or taken ill or men who on enlistment were found to be unfit for front line service because of ill health or because they were too old.

By the end of the war in November 1918 the Labour Corps was some 400,000 strong (11% of the strength of the army). 9,000 men in the Labour Corps were to die due to war service. In addition over 300,000 foreign labourers served alongside the British supporting the fighting soldier. 

George and his known brothers and sisters

William born Hemel Hempstead 1874

John born Wood End 1875

George Born Wood End 1876

Rose Born Wood End 1877 gone by 1901

Arthur born Wood End 1881

Mary born Leverstock Green 1883 gone by 1901

David born Leverstock Green 1886

Lily born Leverstock Green 1888 gone by 1901

Frederick born Leverstock Green 1890

Ellen born Leverstock Green 1893

Annie born 1895 in Bedmond

The First World War led to acute staff shortage at the Leavesden Asylum as many of the nursing staff joined the armed forces. Twenty-two members of staff died on active service. Troops were billeted in the Recreation Hall for a few months and officers were quartered on the Medical Superintendent. In 1918 the staff shortage was so acute three wards had to be closed and these were not all reopened until 1921.

LEVERSTOCK GREEN WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918