BORN HULL 1897. AKA ‘TED’. SON OF GEORGE & LOUISA ELLEN THOMPSON,OF 157 CRAVEN STREET, HULL (1911 CENSUS) & 63 ESCOURT STREET, HULL (HDM ADDRESS, 04/07/1919). HIS FATHER WAS A RAILWAY PLATELAYER. GEORGE WAS A SAW MILL WORKER. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED ON 27/03/1918, AGED 21.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE GEORGE EDWIN THOMPSON 10204. Born in 1897, George was the sixth of eight children to George and Louisa Thompson of 157 Craven Street, Holderness Road, Hull. A Saw Mill Labourer by trade, he joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 2nd Hull Pals, and while his Attestment form appears to have been destroyed during The Blitz when the records office took a hit from a Nazi bomb, his medal records suggest he may have been a soldier prior to the war, at the very least a Territorial as they have him qualifying for his medals early in 1915. George was killed in action on 27th March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive, and his body was never recovered; his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; he was 21 years old. His medal records do reveal one sad fact, one that sadly often appears on the form, a footnote from Army Records to say the family has requested the medals be disposed of: they didn’t wish to receive all that remained of their son. It must simply have been to much to bear.
Background. When the German spring offensive opened on 21 March 1918, 31st Division was in reserve, with 10th and 11th EYR Battalions digging trenches in the ‘Army Line’ behind the front. On 23 March the division was sent up to hold off the German attack at St Léger, but 92 Bde remained in reserve at Ervillers, improvising the defences. Ervillers was attacked on the evening of 24 March, the defence being confused by British troops retreating from the forward defences. Two companies of 10th Bn were pushed up to reinforce 11th Bn fighting in the village streets. About midnight a German patrol got into the village, but was captured by 11th Bn’s HQ staff. The following day the 11th Bn was reinforced by 10th Bn Manchester Regiment of 42nd (East Lancashire) Division and their combined fire stopped the German advance. However, events elsewhere meant that the 31st and 42nd Divisions were ordered on the morning of 27 March to retire through Courcelles-le-Comte.
On 27th March 1917, the brigade defended Ayette aerodrome against repeated attacks from 11.20am to 16.30pm, when with both flanks ‘in the air’, the brigade pulled back to the partly-dug ‘Purple Line’ in front of Ayette village. Between 24 and 27 March, 10th EYR Bn had lost 211 officers and men, and was praised “for its exceptional gallantry on March 27” by the Commander in Chief of the BEF, Sir Douglas Haig. During the night, Lt-Col Headlam of 10th Bn led up a composite battalion of troops from the quartermasters’ details of all three battalions to take over part of the Purple Line, and they helped to recover some 18-pounder ammunition from behind enemy lines, which was fired the following day. Although fighting continued elsewhere along the line, 28 March was a quieter day for 92 Bde, and 11th Bn took over some trenches started by 210th Field Company, Royal Engineers, which they continued to dig. The brigade was relieved on 31 March and marched back to billets near Pommier.
