Born in 1890, George was the fifth of seven children to George and Louisa Archer, of 42, Field Street, Holderness Road, Hull. An Insurance Clerk before the war. He worked for the Sun Life Assurance Society, at Lowgate, Hull and for the Company Headquarter’s at Threadneedle Street, London. He had a promising financial future ahead of him. He enlisted at Hull City Hall joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals.
Training took him to barracks at Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon over the following months and the Pals left Devonport bound for Alexandria, Egypt on 8th December 1915 where their orders were to defend the Suez Canal, a vital transport link to the Empire, from potential attack by Turkish forces. They sailed from Port Said bound for Marseilles in late February 1916. The trenches were a far cry from the desert sands and it was quite a different war after that.
George was killed in action during a 70 minute bombardment of their front line trench at Beaumont Hamel on 4th June 1916 and buried in Sucrerie Miltary Cemetery; he was 26 years old.
Writing sometime after, an unknown comrade said:
It is difficult after twenty years to remember all the names, but I know I was in a bay with six men, the rest were all killed.
They were crushed by the collapsing trench wall and suffocated under the weight of the mud. Could George have been one of them? We will never know.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 13/06/1916, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *
