BORN HULL 1896. SON OF JOSHUA CHARLES & HARRIET ISABELLA BETTS, OF 6 LUCAS SQUARE, SYKES STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS) AND 12 NELSON SQUARE, GEORGE STREET, HULL. ONE OF SIX CHILDREN. HE WORKED FOR BON ACCORD OIL MILLS. HE ENLISTED AT HULL. TRANSFERRED TO THE 12TH EYR (HULL PALS). DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 5 INCHES TALL, 136 LBS WEIGHT, 34 INCH CHEST. POSTED TO FRANCE, ON 09/04/1916. KILLED IN ACTION ON 13/11/1916, AGED 20. GEORGE BETTS’ DEATH WAS REPORTED, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH, IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 1ST JUNE 1917. *
HIS BROTHER JOHN BETTS, 8TH EYR, WAS KILLED THE SAME DAY, ON 13/11/1916. ANOTHER BROTHER, SAPPER, (JOSHUA) CHARLES BETTS, 529TH RE’S, WAS KILLED ON 12TH MAY 1917, AGED 26. BEFORE THE WAR JOHN AND CHARLES BETTS HAD BOTH WORKED FOR MESSRS. LAVERACK & GODDARD, OF HULL.
ANOTHER BROTHER, JOSEPH BETTS, ALSO SERVED IN THE 5TH EYR CYCLISTS AND YOUNGEST BROTHER, HERBERT BETTS (18), WAS TRAINING WITH THE EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. THEIR UNCLE, HERBERT BETTS, OF THE EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT WAS ALSO KILLED IN THE WAR.
IN THE HDM ON 13TH MAY 1918, HIS PARENTS WROTE OF THEIR THREE SONS LOST IN THE WAR, THE FOLLOWING VERSE: –
“PEACEFUL BE YOUR REST DEAR SONS, ‘TIS SWEET TO BREATHE YOUR NAME, IN LIFE WE LOVED VERY DEAR, IN DEATH WE DO THE SAME.” FROM MOTHER, FATHER, SISTERS AND BROTHERS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE GEORGE EDWARD BETTS, 14/171. Born in October 1896 George was the son of Joshua and Harriet Betts of 26 Lockwood Terrace, Lockwood Street, Hull. A Labourer by trade he enlisted at City Hall on 18th December 1915 originally joining the 14th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, but transferring to the 12th upon his arrival in France in April 1916, one of the first new faces to the Pals following their first round of casualties that March. George was killed in action on 13th November 1916 at Beaumont Hamel on the Somme, and buried in Euston Road Cemetery; he was 20 years old. And brace yourselves, for his brother John died the same day in the same sector serving with the 8th Battalion. Two telegrams, two sons. One day. And it wasn’t over. Joshua and Harriet Betts lost their eldest son Joshua Jnr on 12th May 1917 serving with the Royal Engineers.
