GEORGE GREGORY

Private, 11235, 10th Battalion Reserve, Royal Sussex Regiment
Died of 'heart failure' at Shoreham Hospital, Sussex, 13 May 1916, aged 39
Buried in Forest Row cemetery, plot 937
 

Shoreham Camp
(Click to enlarge)

George was born in 1877/78 in Reading, Berkshire. His parents were Thomas and Mary Ann Gregory and the Memorial Book in Holy Trinity Church in Forest Row was signed by Thomas, of Church Cottage, Highgate Road, Forest Row.

In the 1881 census he was recorded at Mr. Gault's Cottage, Hopeful Cottages, Farnham, Surrey. By the 1891 census George, aged 12 to 13, was to be found at Chats Hill ('The Stables'), Beddington, Surrey, with his parents and sister Hannah, an 18 year old general domestic servant, where he was described as a boy gardener. He has not been found in the 1901 census but in 1911 he was a single man working as a coachman in a livery yard, living at Offerton Cottage, Park Road, Forest Row. In his obituary in 1916 it was mentioned that before enlisting at East Grinstead and joining the Royal Sussex Regiment Reserve, George had worked for twelve years at the Ashdown Hotel and was well known in Forest Row.

The 10th Battalion, formed at Dover in October 1914, was part of Kitchener's New Army. It became a 2nd Reserve Battalion in April 1915 based at Colchester, then moved on in 1916 to Shoreham. The 10th Battalion then converted into the 23rd Training Reserve Battalion of the 5th reserve Brigade. The camp at Shoreham was set up initially as a tented encampment for the military training of some 12,000 men. By 1915 wooden huts replaced the tents and it took on the appearance of a small town. By the autumn of 1915 most of the original recruits had left for action in France and a new wave of trainees had arrived. Also in December 1915 a convalescent department was set up for wounded men to recover and be returned for action in the front line.

Forest Row Cemetery
(Click to enlarge)

George is recorded as having died of 'heart failure' at Shoreham Hospital, Sussex, on 13 May 1916 (the cause of death was recorded elsewhere as 'sickness'). He was aged 39. His death is mentioned in the Kent & Sussex Courier of 19 May 1916. He is buried in Forest Row cemetery, grave plot 937. The memorial type is described as P.P and the type of grave as P. with Kerb. Wreaths included at his funeral included one sent by Mrs Grenville Gordon.

The cemetery on the south side of the village of Forest Row belongs to the parish council and contains thirteen World War One graves (represented by eight different regiments), partly because during the war there was a military hospital in Forest Row.

A War Gratuity of £3 5s. 11d. was authorised on 15 August 1916 and this was sent to his father on 23 June 1919.

Kevin Tillett

3 October 2016
Updated 23 November 2019