George Henry Johnson
Private 12437 - 1st Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry
Died of wounds on Wednesday 25th September 1918.
Buried in. Brie British Cemetery, Somme, France
George Henry Johnson was born at Broadhill in the last quarter of 1893 to Gnosall-born
George Johnson, aged 25, and Mary Ann nee Briscoe from Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire,
23.
In 1891, George senior had been lodging at Broadhill with his maternal grandparents John
and Mary Ann Eccles and working as an agricultural labourer, but married Mary Ann at
Atcham (Ruyton) later that year. They had their first child, Alice Ellen, the following year
(baptised 8
th
August 1892), followed by George Henry.
George was baptised at St Lawrence Church, Gnosall on 24
th
September 1893.
In 1901, still at Broadhill and living near Joseph Johnson’s family, George senior was
working as a “woodman on estate”.
George Henry now had three sisters and two brothers. George senior’s 75-year-old
grandmother Mary Ann Eccles, born in Wiltshire, was also living with them.
In 1911 George Henry Johnson was working as a farm waggoner for farmer George
Boffey at Norbury Manor.
He was living at Outwoods at the time of his enlistment at Shrewsbury into the King's
Shropshire Light Infantry as Private 12437, 8th Battalion (according to his medal card).
He arrived with them in France on 6th September 1915.
After a few weeks on the Western Front, the 8
th
Battalion was sent to Macedonia, sailing
from Marseilles on 28
th
October and landing at Salonika on 6th November 1915.
They
spent
the
rest
of
the
war
there.
However
George
was
in
the
1st
Battalion
when
he
died
of
his
wounds
on
the
Somme
on
25th
September
1918
so
perhaps
he
had
already
been transferred.
George was awarded a 1915 Star, and the Victory and British medals.
He is buried in Brie British Cemetery, Somme, France. III.B.8.
Historical Information
On 18-20 March 1917, Commonwealth troops repaired the bridge and took the village of
Brie during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line.
The village and the bridge were later lost on 23 March 1918, during the German offensive,
but were regained on 5 September when the 32nd Division cleared the village.
The cemetery was begun by Commonwealth units after the second occupation of the
village and taken over by the 5th, 47th and 48th Casualty Clearing Stations, which were
posted at Brie in September and October before being moved on along the St. Quentin
road to Bihecourt, near Vermand.
It was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from St. Cren British and
German Cemeteries and from the battlefields east and south of Brie. Brie British Cemetery
contains 409 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War.
49 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 15 casualties known or
believed to be buried among them. There are also 36 German war graves in the cemetery.
Brie British Cemetery