BORN HULL 1894. SON OF GEORGE GLEDHILL GILL (1860-1913) & ELIZA ANN GILL, OF 132, FOUNTAIN ROAD, HULL (1911 CENSUS) AND 12, VANCOUVER TERRACE, ALEXANDRA ROAD, HULL. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED ON 11/07/1917, AGED 23. LISTED ON THE COTTINGHAM ROLL OF HONOUR.
HIS BROTHER, ALFRED GILL, MM, FORMERLY , 10/798, 1OTH EYR, TRANSFERRED TO PRIVATE 28816, 2ND DUBLIN FUSILIER, AND DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 07/10/1918.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. Private, GEORGE WILLIAM GILL 10/764. Born 1894, the second of six children, to George and Eliza Gill of 132 Fountain Road, Hull. George was an Office Clerk before the war, but joined the long queues of September 1914 seeking adventure and glory in the war that would be over by Christmas. He fought in first Egypt, then the Somme and Oppy Wood before the 10th Battalion was sent into the front line alongside the Canadians at Vimy Ridge. He was killed in action on 11th July 1917 and buried at Coxyde Military Cemetery. He was 23 years old. Coxyde Cemetery is in Belguim and was used to bury the dead from the trenches north of the Ypres Salient. This at first puzzled me as it was nowhere near where he died. Further reading suggests he may have been one of ten soldiers from “isolated graves” who were exhumed after the Armistice and reburied here. Private Surfleet describes their new home: “Billeted in trenches, and such trenches! Many French and German (and a few British) buried here”.The top step of one stink-hole consisted of a kind of soft bagging which, when met with rain, exuded a red fluid which trickled down the steps. We found it better to ignore it, for conjectures are not pleasant when you come across more than one poor soul buried in sand-bagging and forming part of the trench side. To dig around was most unpleasant.”
