Ploegsteert Memorial, Hainaut, Belgium
George Victor Worrall
Private 7649 - 1st Battalion North Stafford Regiment
Died of wounds on Sunday 31st October 1914
No known grave but is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Hainaut,
Belgium
Born
in
Gnosall
in
1887.
He
was
the
son
of
blacksmith
John
Worrall
from
St
George’s
near
Lilleshall,
aged
about
26.
(John
Worrall’s
sisters
and
mother
had
been
born
in
Gnosall
–
the
family
lived
in
Coton
in
the
1870s
and
1880s.)
John’s
wife,
(George’s
mother),
Mary
Jane nee Johnson (31) was also Gnosall-born. John and Mary had married in St.
Lawrence Church on 28
th
December 1886
George was baptised at St Lawrence Church, Gnosall, on 9
th
October1887
The
1891
census
shows
the
family
living
in
Gnosall
(probably
in
Wharf
Road)
about
halfway
between
the
Fountain
Inn
&
Coton
Lodge.
George’s
father
was
working
as
a
blacksmith.
There
were
now
a
younger
brother,
Cyril,
born1889,
and
a
younger
sister,
Ida
Lilian (1891).
By 1901 the family had moved to Kettering, Northants. George, aged 14, was now working
as an errand boy, and his father was still a blacksmith.
It
was
in
Kettering
that
George
enlisted
in
the
1
st
North
Staffordshire
Regiment
as
Private
7649
and
he
entered
the
theatre
of
war
on
the
10
th
September
1914
when
his
regiment
went
to
France.
He
was
later
awarded
the
“Mons
Star”
(1914
star),
Clasp
2/2951,
and
the
Victory and British medals (the three medals being known as “Pip Squeak and Wilfred”).
His span of duty lasted only 51 days and he died of wounds received during the course of
day-to-day trench warfare on 31
st
October 1914.
George Victor Worrall has no
known
grave,
but
is
remembered on Panel 8 of the
Ploegsteert Memorial south of
Ypres in Belgium.
His record states “Son of Mary
Worrall,
of
53,
Edmund
St.,
Kettering,
Northants,
and
the
late John Worrall.”
The Birmingham Daily Post of
13
th
January 1915 carried the
notice:
“DIED OF WOUNDS … WORRALL, 7649, Pte. G., North Staffordshire Regt.”