George Edward Pearce
Memorial: Badminton Memorial Hall - Hayes Lane
Regiment: Royal Field Artillery
Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Gunner (Service No. 826271 - formerly 3593)
Parents: William and Harriet (Nee Smith) Pearce
Marital status: Married
Home address: Home Address: High Street, Hawkesbury Upton Lived: 1901 Census – The family lived Hooks House Cottage, Tetbury Upton, Tetbury
Pre-war occupation: Saddler
Date of birth: 1892
Place of birth: Westonbirt
Further information:
The only record traced for a George Pearce from the Badminton area was that he survived the war. The probable reason he was included on the memorial is that he was still serving in 1919 and was based in Batoum, South west Georgia on the Black Sea. He was officially demobbed in Chanak, Turkey in August 1919, and returned to the UK in September 1919, but his papers suggest he was not fully released until early 1920. I can only assume that his wife and family had not heard from him and assumed he had died.
George enlisted in the Territorial forces in November 1915 and served in Salonika (Greece) from January 1917, before moving to Russia after the war.
George could not be traced on the 1911 Census, and he was not with his widowed mother in Tetbury. It is possible he worked on the Badminton estate prior to WW1, but this is just speculation and not proven.
He returned to Hawkesbury as he appears on their Electoral Register in 1920. This may be why he does not appear on the Hawkesbury memorial, but those dealing with the Badminton memorial were not aware he survived.
George married Annie Maria Dickinson in Hawkesbury on 2/02/1916. On the 1939 Register, George and Annie were living in Waters Green, New Forest, and George was a Groom and Chauffer.
George Pearce is remembered on the Badminton Memorial board in the Village Hall and on the Chipping Sodbury and District War Memorial Cottage Hospital board, now at Yate and District Heritage Centre under Badminton.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Findmypast (Soldiers Died during the Great War, 1901 & 1911 Census etc), Volunteer Researcher John Davis.