Pte 27334 George Oswald Chadwick

• Age: 26
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 28th June 1916
• Commemorated at: Cerisy-gailly Mil Cem
  Panel Ref: II.K.27

George Oswald Chadwick was born on 11^th February 1890 in Liverpool and was baptised 30th April 1890 at St Matthias, Liverpool. He was the son of Robert Chadwick and Margaret Ann Thomas who married 12th May 1884 at St Peter's Church, Liverpool. George was the third of five children born to Robert Chadwick, a butcher, and his wife Margaret who was herself the daughter of a butcher and helped in her father’s shop at 68 Regent Street, Liverpool. Robert, her husband, was the eldest son of a butcher, Thomas Chadwick, who had a shop in Victoria Road, Seacombe.

At the time of the 1891 Census the family are living at 68 Regent Street. George Oswald, then only 1 year old is living with his mother, sister Edith aged 6, older brother William Thomas 4, and his grandfather, William Thomas, aged 56. There is no record of his father, Robert. 

In 1901 George, his brother William Thomas and their older sister, Edith, are again shown at 68 Regent Street with their grandfather, while his father Robert and mother Margaret Ann are shown with their 2 younger sons, Robert, born 1899, and Walter, born 1901, at 78 Dublin Street, Liverpool. 

His mother died, aged 43, in 1909.

The 1911 Census shows Robert and Walter are living with their married elder brother, William Thomas, a shipping butcher, at 68 Regent Street. George is possibly George Chadwick, born 1890 in Liverpool, a labourer in an oilcake mill, who is a boarder at 4 Seacombe Buildings, Furlong Street, Liverpool.

George’s medal card shows him as having been awarded only the Victory and British War Medals. He was serving in the in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 27334 when he was killed in action on the 28th June 1916, aged 26. 

He was buried close to where he fell in Maricourt Military Cemetery and his grave marked with a cross.  The cemetery was at the south-east corner of the village, on the road to Clery. It was begun by French troops in December, 1914, and was known to the French by the name of Ferme Caudron.  It was taken over by British troops in August, 1915, and used until July 1916.  

After the war when graves were concentrated his body was removed and reinterred in Cerisy-Gailly Cemetery where he now rests.

Gailly was the site of the 39th and 13th Casualty Clearing Stations during the early part of 1917, and of the 41st Stationary Hospital from May 1917 to March 1918. The villages were then captured by the Germans, but were retaken by the Australian Corps in August 1918. Cerisy-Gailly Military Cemetery (originally called the New French Military Cemetery) was begun in February 1917 and used by medical units until March 1918. After the recapture of the village it was used by Australian units. The cemetery was increased after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields of the Somme and the following small cemeteries:- BEAUFORT BRITISH CEMETERY was about 300 metres North of Beaufort Church. It was made in August, 1918 (after the capture of the village by the 1st Canadian Division) between the existing German Cemetery and a farm track, and it contained the graves of 56 Canadian soldiers and two from the United Kingdom. BUIGNY-LES-GAMACHES COMMUNAL CEMETERY contained the grave of one soldier from the United Kingdom, buried in July, 1918, by the 26th Field Ambulance. BUIRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, in the commune of Buire-Courcelles, was on the North side of the Communal Cemetery. It contained three German plots and one British, and in the British plot were buried 36 Australian soldiers and four from the United Kingdom. These men fell in September, 1918 except three who were buried by the enemy in the preceding March. MARICOURT MILITARY CEMETERY was at the South-East corner of the village, on the road to Clery. It was begun by French troops in December, 1914, and was known to the French by the name of Ferme Caudron. It was taken over by British troops in August, 1915, and used until July, 1916. It contained the graves of 887 French soldiers, 260 from the United Kingdom and six German. STE. HELENE BRITISH CEMETERY, PONTRUET, was on the East side of the hamlet of Ste. Helene. It was made in September and October, 1918 during the capture of the hamlet by the 46th (North Midland) Division and their attack at Pontruet, and it contained the graves of 88 soldiers and one airman from the United Kingdom, the majority of whom belonged to the 46th Division or the 1st Dorsets. 158 French and 35 German graves were removed to other burial grounds. The cemetery now contains 745 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 114 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials commemorate five casualties buried at Maricourt and Ste. Helene whose graves could not be found. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

He was reported killed in the Liverpool Daily Post on Monday 24 July 1916:

King’s (Liverpools) - Chadwick, 27334 G. O. (Seacombe); Charlton, 24977, J. (Liverpool); Mythen, 16388, W. G. (Liverpool); Nimmo, 15271, K. P. (Liverpool); Hilton, 16523, J. (Bolton); Worrall, 29268, T. (Liverpool);

Soldiers Effects, army pay of £2 12s 6d, war gratuity £4, and pension to sister-in-law Sarah Ellen Chadwick, 31 Melbourne Street, and father Robert, 41 Everton Brow (a lodging house).  

His father died aged 67 in 1928 and was buried on the 1st September at Anfield Cemetery, his address 41 Everton Brow. 

George is commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 10 Left.  

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