Wells, George Arthur

BORN NEWINGTON, HULL 1892. ONLY SON OF GEORGE WILLIAM (FRUIT MERCHANT) & ASENATH WELLS, HORNSEA. WORKED FOR GOSSCHALKS. PLAYED CRICKET FOR NEWINGTON. BURIED AT AUCHONVILLERS MILITARY CEMETERY, ON THE SOMME. HIS GRAVE READS, “SLEEP ON BELOVED”.
Hull Pals Memorial Post: Born in 1892, George was the eldest of two children and only son of George and Asenath Wells of 13 Lowther Street, Albert Ave, Hull. Educated at St. George’s Road Council School he gained a scholarship to The Boulevard Secondary School. On leaving school he went to work as a Clerk in the offices of Mssrs Dumoulin & Gosschalk Merchants and was a keen sportsman playing cricket for Newington Parish Church Team.When war came George enlisted at Hull City Hall joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals. He trained throughout 1915 at barracks in Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon before sailing to Alexandria, Egypt that December. The Pals were charged with protecting the Suez Canal from potential attack by the Turks, and spent the winter of 1915-16 in the desert.Everything changed in late February when they left Port Said for Marseilles and headed north for the trenches of the Western Front. George was killed in action on 30th March 1916 and is buried in Auchonvillers Military Cemetery; he was 24 years old.
Private Tait recorded the incident: “…being our first time under fire many of us are in no joking mood. Directly we enter trenches we see Wells of C Company being carried out dead. This upsets us a great deal, as he is a terrible sight.”