Roberts, George Freeman

BORN SWINTON, YORKSHIRE, 1887. ENLISTED ROTHERHAM. LISTED AS A HULL CASUALTY IN HDM 2/1/18.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE GEORGE FREEMAN ROBERTS 3/8142. Born in Swinton, Yorkshire in 1887 George is something of an enigma. He was a soldier before the war, appearing on the 1911 Census as part of the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. His records say he enlisted in Rotherham, and it could be that he had left the army and was mobilised at the outbreak of war, because his regimental number shows him as part of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment who served out the war as the Humber Garrison based first at Fort Paull and then later out at Withernsea where they manned the Humber forts defending the mouth of the estuary to keep Hull safe from naval attack. Whether the drain of manpower as the war ground on had George transferred, or whether being sat staring across the Humber flats was too much for him and he longed for the Western Front, I don’t know, but George was ultimately transferred to the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and sent to the trenches. He was killed in action on 23rd November 1917 and buried at Roclincourt Military Cemetery; George Freedom Roberts was 30 years old.