BORN PATRINGTON 1895. RESIDED PATRINGTON. RECORDED ON THE HULL CITY ENGINEER MEMORIAL, PARK STREET, HULL. HE IS ALSO COMMEMORATED ON THE EASINGTON WW1 MEMORIAL.
Son of William and Mary Tennison, of Grange Farm, Kilnsea, East Yorks. The Story Behind George William Tennison, was related by his brother Ernie Tennison. When all three brothers Ernie, George and Jack were in their younger years, they all slept in the same bedroom (a quite common practice in those days with large families and limited bedrooms) Ernie said, one night they all turned in and after saying goodnight to each other went to sleep. In the morning they were surprised to find that George’s bed was empty, un beknown to any of the family, George had planned to enlist in the East Yorkshire Regiment of the army and to serve his country, during the night he had quietly woken up, slipped out of the house, made his way to Hull and signed up.
George served with the 1/4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment with a Regimental Number of 201393. He was killed in action in France on 23rd April 1917 aged just 22 years old. His name is inscribed on the Arras War Memorial in France.
Ernie said that saying goodnight was the last thing any of them said to him, they never got to say goodbye! This very personal and moving account must have been repeated thousands of times throughout the country, as many young men volunteered to serve their King and country without any hesitation.
The Battalion diary describes the day George died. “On 23 April, about 7 a.m. the enemy launched a vigorous counter-attack from the direction of Cherisy and from Vis-en-Artois, The Green Howard’s, on the left of the 1/4th East Yorkshire’s who had already lost heavily, were forced back by the weight of this attack, leaving the East Yorkshiremen in a desperate situation. The Diary of the 1/4th states that : The Battalion was quickly surrounded, but apparently not all the officers or men were captured, for later the Brigade reports that the 1/4th East Yorkshire’s are back in original line. Such was the situation just before noon. The guns captured from the enemy were retaken by him, but he had lost some hundreds of prisoners of whom the 1/4th took many The total casualties in killed, wounded and missing suffered by the 1/4th East Yorkshire’s were I7 officers and 352 other ranks. The remnants
of the Battalion on reaching their original trenches were placed under the orders of the 8th D.L.I. and remained in the front line until midnight when Brigade H.Q. ordered them back into reserve. At 9 p.m. on 24th the Battalion, or all that remained of it, marched back to Arras and billeted in the town. On the 25th the trench strength of the Battalion,
including details left in Arras during the operations, was only 10 Officers and 215 other ranks.
