Pte 383688 George Henry Hulme

His mother had a daughter, Annie Barbara Lythgoe, born in 1879, who was raised as Hulme, she was born in Liverpool. 

 

At the time of the 1891 census the family is living at 78 Prince Edwin Lane, Everton, with four children. His father is a 33 year old carter born in Liverpool, mother Mary Ann is aged 33 also born Liverpool, George is 5.

 

By 1901 they have moved to 3 Haddon Street, Everton (off Roscommon Street).  His parents are both 43, his father is a general labourer. His siblings are shown as; Annie, 22, is a soap packer, William, 20, is a ship’s cook, and Elizabeth is 18, no occupation listed.  George is 16, a general labourer like his father.

 

George married Sarah Wilkinson at St Timothy's Church, Walton on 23rd April, 1905. They had 5 children Mary Ann born 6th January,1907, Ellen (Nellie) born 24th February, 1909, Annie born in the summer of 1911 but sadly died at 19 months old, Elizabeth born 6th December, 1913 and George Henry born 4th January, 1916.

 

The 1911 census finds George and his family at 15 Mazzini Street, Everton.  He is 26, a mill labourer, Sarah Ann is 24, Mary Ann is 4, and Nellie 2.  At the same address in a separate household, two families living in four rooms, is Sarah’s family, parents Isaac and Sarah Wilkinson, with son Tom and daughter Elizabeth.

 

In 1911 his parents are living with married daughter Elizabeth in Albert Terrace, Everton, his father a flour mill labourer.  Two of their four children have died.  

 

George Henry enlisted in Liverpool on 07th November 1914 joining the 20th Battalion as Private 22127, giving his age as 29 years and 11 months and his occupation as a Miller. He was described as being 5'5 inches tall, weighing 126lbs with brown eyes and brown hair. He stated his religion as Church of England andhis next of kin as his wife Sarah Hulme, 64 Anthony Street. 

His service papers have survived and show that he was passed from Battalion to Battalion whilst in the UK. 

20th Battalion Posted 07/11/14

Depot Posted 29/04/15 (the day before the 4 Pals Battalions left Liverpool for Grantham)

20th Battalion Posted 28/10/15

22nd (Reserve) Battalion 08/11/15

He embarked to France on 16/02/16 rejoining the 20th Battalion on 04/03/16.

He was granted leave to the UK from 17th -26th November 1916. This was compassionate leave as his young daughter, Nellie, had died of TB on 16/11/1916.

His father died in February 1917, aged 57.

 

George was transferred to the 916th (Area Employment) Company, Labour Corps as Private 383688 on 05th October 1917. 

 

He was serving with the Labour Corps when he was declared missing on 27th March 1918. The official records were altered over a year later, dated 23/4/1919, to "killed in action or died of wounds on or shortly after 30/03/1918". This date of death can be assumed to be correct due to a testimony given by Private 383628 Walter Balckburn on 08th February 1919. In it he states;

"On March 30 1918, I and 383688 Pte G H Hulme, who was attached to the same company as myself, were retreating from a position near to Hamel Wood, France, and when crossing a field about 1.30 pm a shell burst between us. I sustained shrapnel wounds in the back, buttock and left leg. I heard Hulme call out "Oh my back". I said to him "Keep your heart up". He replied "I'm done". I spoke to him several times during the following four hours but received no reply. He was laid upon his back. 

Between 5 and 5.30 pm a soldier whose identity I do not know came up to me, I asked him to see if my Pal (Hulme) was alive. He went and looked at him and then informed me he was quite dead. He also handed to me Pte Hulme's pay book which I gave to the authorities upon my arrival at No.3 Hospital, Reading.  About 5.30 pm the stretcher bearers came upon the scene, removed me and this was the last I saw of Pte Hulme. I could not personally ascertain that Hulme was dead owing to the seriousness of my injuries but the above mentioned soldier was most emphatic in his assertion".

If George was buried, his resting place was either lost of destroyed as his name is recorded on the Pozieres Memorial in France. 

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

Poor Sarah had now lost her daughter and her husband in less than 18 months.

 

Further tragedy befell her again on 27th February 1919 when young George Henry died of broncho pneumonia (probably Spanish Flu) aged 3. 

Goerge's death was finally confirmed in the Liverpool Evening Express on 06th May 1919: 

HULME - March 30, 1918, reported missing now report killed or died of wounds, Private George H. Hulme, 383688, Labour Corps (late Pals ,1914). (Hero unknown, sadly missed by his mother, sister and brother-in-law Billy, 56a Smith Street, Kirkdale, the best of friends.)  

We do not forget him, nor do we intend, 

We think of him daily and will to the end;  

Oh how we prayed for him to be found  

By some good comrade homeward bound. 

But as we waited day by day 

No one could tell us where his remains lay. 

His widow Sarah received his Army effects and a War Gratuity of £19-10s.

 

The pension card shows two claimants: his widow Sarah, 64 Antony Street, and his mother Mary Ann, at 56a Smith Street, Great Mersey Street.  Sarah received a separation allowance and was initially awarded a pension but when she remarried in September 1919 would have received a remarriage gratuity in lieu of a pension. His mother was awarded a pension (amounts varied), from September 1919.

 

Sarah lost the fourth of her five children when daughter Elizabeth died in 1920, aged 6.

 

Sarah had seven children from her second marriage, two of whom, sadly, also died young.

His mother died in late 1927 or early 1928 as she was buried on 04th January 1928, she was aged 71.

In 1939 Sarah, 53, is living at 39 Foley Street with her family.

 She died in 1940, aged 54.  

 

George's daughter Mary Ann, the only one of his five children to survive to adulthood, married in 1928 and had three children.

In 1939 she is living at 159 Rose Vale, Everton.

Mary Ann died in 1986 aged 79.

 

George is commemorated in Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 56.

 

We currently have no further information on George Henry Hulme, if you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.