L/Cpl 33174 George Ewart Bevan

• Age: 26
• From: Buckley
• Regiment: 12th KLR
• Died on Friday 4th August 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F 1D.8B & 8C

The 1911 census finds George Ewart Bevan living in Bistre, Buckley where he is a 22 year old schoolteacher. He lives with his father John a brickworks labourer,  his mother  and his sisters Louisa May (15), Gertrude (14).

He married Elizabeth Eleanor Thomas in Chester on 11th November 1915, and they had one child Georgina Elizabeth born 09 October 1916.

George enlisted and joined the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 33174. He subsequently transferred to the 12th Battalion K.L.R. George was killed in action on 04th August 1916. 

His body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. 

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01^st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

A newspaper report at the time of his death gives some further background: 

CORPORAL G.E. BEAVAN, BUCKLEY – News has been received of the death of Corporal George Ewart Beavan, of the Manchester Regiment.  Corporal Beavan joined the Liverpools but, while in France, was transferred to the Manchesters.  Deceased was educated at the Council Schools, Buckley, and the Alun School, Mold, being a pupil teacher at the former.  Subsequently he taught at schools in Abergele and Chester.  Corporal Beavan was a brilliant scholar, and a most promising career has been cut short.  He was always very cheery and sanguine, and will be greatly missed by a large circle of friends. Numerous letters of condolence and sympathy have been received by his wife and parents, with whom general sympathy prevails.  Corporal Beavan was 26 years of age, and a communicant of the Bistre Parish church.  His parents reside at Main-street, Buckley, and his young widow at Mold.

He is commemorated on the family headstone at Mold Cemetery as follows:

Also of Lance Corporal G Ewart Bevan
Kings Liverpool Regiment
The beloved son – in -law of the above
Who was killed on the Somme
France August 4th 1916 aged 26 years

Beneath his details is the epitaph:

‘Greater love hath no man  ……
A man lay down his life for his friends.’

Grateful thanks are extended to Sefton RUFC