Pte 204299 George Wiseman

The 1901 Census finds Alice and George living with her sister in law, his aunt, Grace Wiseman and her two daughters, at 11 Eastbourne Street, Everton. Alice is 44, working as a cap maker, George is 10. His aunt, 52, is a pork butcher, working on her own account.

 

By the time of the 1911 Census, George is living with his mother Alice, at 7 Eastbourne Street. George is 20, a cotton broker’s clerk, his mother is still working as a cap maker.  The census form is filled in by Robert Talbot, a neighbour.

 

When George was 23, he married Elizabeth McComb, 22, on 10th July 1913 in St. Augustine's Church, Everton.  He gave his occupation as a clerk, and his residence as 10 Hannan Road, Kensington, Liverpool. They had two sons; George Henry was born on 07th January 1915 and Leslie on 02nd July 1916.

 

In 1915 his mother Alice remarried to Peter Jenkins at St. Philip's Church, Liverpool.

 

George enlisted in Liverpool and joined the 19th Battalion of the Kings Liverpool Regiment as Private 204299.

He was killed in action on 07th June 1917. The 19th Battalion War Diary contains details of the action on the day that George was killed:

From the battalion War Diary for 07^th June 1917 –  The Battle of Messines.  

"Attack on the Messines Ridge by the Second Army, this battalion and the 2^nd Bedfordshire Regt holding the line on the left flank of the attack. Immediately after zero (3.10 a.m.) four patrols under 2^nd Lieuts  J. Ross, G.W. Sharples, A.S. Calvert, C.W. Cackett.  The first patrol under 2^nd Lieut Ross got to within 40 yards of the German front line.  2^nd Lt Ross then left his patrol and went forward to reconnoitre. In climbing over the parapet he found that the front line was strongly held.  With great difficulty he got his patrol back to our front line having suffered only 1 casualty (wounded). The report was immediately sent in with the result that artillery commenced to bombard the enemy front line.  The other three patrols were unable to get far owing to the heavy enemy machine gun and rifle fire.  One patrol leader, 2^nd Lt. Sharples, was killed and his patrol suffered casualties, 2 OR killed and 4 OR wounded.  In 2^nd Lt. Calvert’s patrol 1 OR was killed.  During the day repeated reports were received of the progress of the attack on the right and late in the afternoon reports were received that most of the objectives had been reached.”

The three Other Ranks killed during this action were Pte 52098 Alfred Jackson, Pte 204299 George Wiseman, and Pte 23106 Samuel McIlroy.  They lie together in Railway Dugout Burial Ground at Zillebeke.

George's headstone bears the epitaph:

"AT REST"

Railway Dugouts Burial Ground is 2 Km west of Zillebeke village, where the railway runs on an embankment overlooking a small farmstead, which was known to the troops as Transport Farm.  Burials began there in April 1915 and continued until the Armistice, especially in 1916 and 1917, when Advanced Dressing Stations were located in the dugouts and the farm.  The names "Railway Dugouts" and "Transport Farm" were both used for the cemetery.  In the summer of 1917 a considerable number were obliterated by shell fire before they could be marked. The names "Railway Dugouts" and "Transport Farm" were both used for the cemetery.

At the time of the Armistice, more than 1,700 graves in the cemetery were known and marked. Other graves were then brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries in the vicinity, and a number of the known graves destroyed by artillery fire were specially commemorated. The latter were mainly in the present Plots IV and VII.

The cemetery now contains 2,459 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 430 of the burials are unidentified and 261 casualties are represented by special memorials. Other special memorials record the names of 72 casualties buried in Valley Cottages and Transport Farm Annexe Cemeteries whose graves were destroyed in later fighting.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for one year.

 

His death was announced in the Liverpool Echo on 21st June 1917:

“June 7, killed in action, aged 27 years, Private George Wiseman, only loved son of Mrs. Jenkins, and dearly-beloved husband of Elizabeth Wiseman, 10 Hannan Road. (One of the best.)”

 

And an In Memoriam notice, on the first anniversary of his death:

“In loving remembrance of Private George Wiseman, K.L.R., the dearly beloved husband of Elizabeth Wiseman, and only loved son of Mrs. Jenkins, killed in action June 7, 1917.  (Words cannot express our deep sorrow.) - 10 Hannan Road.”

 

His widow Elizabeth received George’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £3, and a pension of £1-2s-11d a week from December 1917.

 

Elizabeth remarried in 1921 to John J. Edwards at St Philip's Church, Liverpool.

George's son Leslie sadly died in 1924 at the age of 8.

His mother appears to have died in 1928, aged 72.

 

His son George Henry became an aircraft fitter; in 1939 he is living in Hannan Road, at number 24. He married, had a child Leslie, and died in 1975 aged 60.

 

George is commemorated on the following memorials-

Liverpool Cotton Association 

St. Augustine's Church, Everton

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 31