Pte 57464 George Somers

 

In 1901 George, 5, is a visitor in the household of John and Maggie Sharpe in Forthar, Kettle, Fife.  John is 46, a domestic coachman born in Logie, Perthshire, Maggie, 48, their daughter Maggie, 13, and granddaughter Mary Jane Hutcheson, 3, were all born, like George, in Port of Monteith. 

 

On 2nd November 1908, when he was 13, George enrolled in Kettle Public School, having previously attended Freuchie Primary School.  John Sharpe is given as his parent/guardian.

 

Unfortunately the 1911 Scotland census is not available.  SDGW records that George was living in Glasgow at the time of his enlistment.  The Sharpe family remained in Kettle, Fife.

 

He enlisted in Glasgow, as George Somers, and was originally 1045, Army Cyclist Corps before he was transferred to the 20th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. Following a further transfer, most probably upon the disbandment of the 20th Battalion in France in February 1918, George was serving in the 17th Battalion K.L.R. when he was killed in action, aged 22, on the 28^th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. Details are contained in the battalion diary:

By the 25^th April the battalion had taken up positions of readiness in the Voormezeele sector. According to the battalion War Diary, on the night of the 27^th, at 8.30 p.m. they moved to the line to relieve 4^th Bn, relief completed about 1 a.m.

28^th – At about 1 p.m. a company of composite battalion gave way on the left of our line and the Bosche penetrated from the Canal Bank to the left of my battalion front, which position he maintained despite 5 hours fighting. My reserve company was ordered to counter-attack and restore the position at 7.45 p.m. but enemy laid down a barrage at 7.43 a.m. and the counter attack was unable to proceed. The enemy bombardment lasted until 10.30 p.m. and I then organised a defensive flank. 

George has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

His guardian Mrs. Margaret Sharpe, Crown Hotel stables, Kingskettle, Fife, received George’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £12-10s.