George Benjamin Bracey
Memorial: Downend - Christ Church
Regiment: Royal Engineers
Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Corporal WR/19498 (previously 401853301174)
Parents: Lancelot and Emma Elizabeth Bracey
Marital status: Married
Home address: 3 East View, Pendennis Road, Staple Hill, Bristol (1911)
Pre-war occupation: Plate Layer / Labourer with Midland Railway
Date of birth: 26/02/1885
Date of death: 07/12/1918
Buried/Commemorated at: Buried at Beirut War Cemetery, Lebanese Republic and commemorated on Staple Hill Memorial
Age: 33
Further information:
George was the son of a general labourer and the second eldest of 6. He had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. George married Clara Millie Banfield in October 1910 and together they had three children. They had a boy and two girls but one of the girls died as a baby. George and his younger brother Henry both worked on the railways in peacetime as wells as wartime and both brothers died after the war had ended and within 17 days of each other.
George joined the Royal Garrison Artillery (3287 and 116469) as a gunner then signed up to the Royal Field Artillery (301174) before joining the 272nd Railway Construction Company Royal Engineers which was operational between 1914 and 1919. The remit of the construction companies was to bring narrow gauge railway close to the war fronts and post-war they continued with repair work. The 272nd were stationed in Egypt between December 1917 and March 1919. Beirut, where George is buried, was the site of the 32nd and 15th Combined Clearing Hospitals. George died there of illness or injury 4 weeks after the end of hostilities.
Commemorated on the Christ Church Downend and the Staple Hill (Page Park) Memorials. George is also commemorated on the Staple Hill Methodist Church Memorial.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-corps-of-royal-engineers-in-the-first-world-war/railway-construction-companies-of-the-royal-engineers/
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Findmypast (Soldiers Died during the Great War, 1901 and 1911 Census etc), researcher John Davis