Pte 11813 George Ashbrook

• Age: 40
• From: Northwich, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 23rd June 1917
• Commemorated at: Birr Cross Roads Cem Zillebeke
  Panel Ref: II.C.17

George Ashbrook was born on the 03rd November 1876 at Northwich and was baptised on the 31st December 1876 at Delamere. He was the son of George Ashbrooke and his wife Ellen (nee Groves). He was educated at Weaverham Forest County Primary School (His surname showing as Ashbrooke).

George married Ellen Gosling at St Anne's Church in the town on the 23rd October 1898.

(He seems to have been born Ashbrooke, as per civil registration but appears as Ashbrook on baptism and military records)

George and Ellen had five other children: Edith born 07th October 1901, Gladys born 03rd April 1905, Nellie born 10th January 1910, Alfred born 01st May 1911 and Marian born 14th November 1913. 

George enlisted at Warrington on the 08th September1914 and was posted to the 14th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 11813. He was transferred to the 4th Battalion K.L.R. on 31st March 1915 and sailed to France with the 4th Battalion arriving on 01st April 1915. 

He returned home, probably wounded, on 05th May 1915 remaining there until 06th December 1915. Whilst at home he served with the 3rd Battalion. By the time he sailed to France again he was back in the 4th Bn. He remained in France until 21st July 1916 returning to the UK, he served with the 3rd Bn upon his return home. His return home came just weeks after the untimely death of his wife Ellen who died of T.B. on 29/04/1916. 

George returned to France on 02nd January 1917 with the 4th Battalion and was transferred on the 05th January to the 19th Battalion (Pals) of The King's Liverpool Regiment.

He was killed in action on 23/06/1917, aged 40.

The 19th Battalion diary records the details of his loss:

"At night practically all of the Battalion were out on a working party, digging an assembly Trench and suffered casualties 7 other ranks killed, 13 other ranks wounded and 1 other rank missing"

George was one of the 7 other ranks the others being Norman Garside, Andrew Harron, Harold Hart, Harold Mathison, Frederick Owen and Joseph Spencer.

George is buried at Birr Cross Roads Cemetery at Plot II.C.17.

The village and the greater part of the commune of Zillebeke were within the Allied lines until taken by the Germans at the end of April 1918. The village was recovered by the II Corps on 8 September 1918.

Birr Cross Roads was named by the 1st Leinsters from their depot. The cemetery was begun in August 1917 and used as a Dressing Station cemetery until, and after, the German advance in 1918. At the Armistice, it contained nine irregular rows of graves, now part of Plot I, but was greatly enlarged when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from certain smaller cemeteries, including:-

BELLEWAARDE RIDGE MILITARY CEMETERY, ZONNEBEKE, was a little way North-East of Bellewaarde Lake, almost on the top of the low hill which rises northwards from the Menin Road between Hooge and Clapham Junction. It contained the graves of 17 soldiers from Australia, and eleven from the United Kingdom, who fell in September and October 1917. The Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge was fought on the 24th-25th May 1915; the Attacks on Bellewaarde were delivered, unsuccessfully, in June and September 1915; and the Ridge, taken in July 1917, and given up in April 1918, was finally retaken by the 9th (Scottish) Division on the 28th September 1918.

BIRR CROSS ROADS CEMETERY No.2, seventy-five metres South of No.1 (the present cemetery), contained the graves of 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July and August 1917.

UNION STREET GRAVEYARDS No.1 and No.2, ZILLEBEKE, were due North of Zillebeke village, between Gordon House and Hell Fire Corner. They contained the graves of 19 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in August and September 1915.

There are now 833 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 332 of the burials are unidentified, but there are special memorials to nine casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 18 casualties buried in Birr Cross Roads Cemetery No.2 and the Union Street Graveyards, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire, and one Belgian interpreter whose grave cannot now be found.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The St Helens Examiner and Runcorn Examiner dated 21st July 1917 reported

Private G. Ashbrook

Private George Ashbrook of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment whose home is at 8 Admiral Street, Howley, was killed in action on the 23rd June. Private Ashbrook was a native of Northwich, but came to Warrington as a as a youth, and worked for Messrs. Dolan Brothers as a bricksetter's labourer. He joined the army shortly after the outbreak of war, and had been wounded twice. His wife died in the early part of this year and he leaves six children, of whom the eldest a boy of 18, already in training for active service.

He left five children who had already suffered the grievous loss of their mother just over a year earlier. Thankfully it appears that an aunt, Jane Kelly, of 8 Admiral Street, Warrington stepped in to care for the children.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to guardian of his children Jane Kelly.

Grateful thanks are extended to Bev Ritson for the biographical information.

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