George Edmund Stocking

Born: 3 September 1874

Died: 30 September 1918

Rank and Regiment: Pioneer 118595 No. 8 Foreway Coy of the Royal Engineers

Resting Place: Beuvry Communal Cemetery Extension, France - Grave III D3

Memorials: St. Margaret’s, Garvestone, United Kingdom

He was born in Necton, about four miles from Swaffham, on 3 September 1874, the son of David Stocking of Hilborough and his wife Edney, a native of Reymerston. He was given the names of a deceased brother who had been baptised at Hilborough, Norfolk, on 11 October 1871 and buried there seven days later aged only six months.

Our George was baptised at Reymerston on 2 September 1877. In the 1881 Census the family, with George the youngest of five children, had moved to Thuxton, but George is recorded as living once again in Reymerston with his father, by then a widower, in the 1891 Census. Edney had been buried at Thuxton on 10 November 1884.

He is recorded as enlisting at Whitehall on 4 September 1915, at which time he was living at 4 Beech Road, Hadleigh, Essex, and working as a navvy. He is recorded as standing 5 ft 7 in tall and having a 40 inch chest. He weighed 169 lb (12 st 1 lb), a good weight for those days.

He served at home in the 7th Labour Battalion until 1917. He was then transferred to the Royal Engineers (unsurprising given his peacetime occupation) and joined the British Expeditionary Force on 25 May 1917.

He nearly survived the War, but was eventually killed on 30 September 1918.

He is buried at Beuvry Communal Cemetery Extension (Grave III D3). The inscription on his tombstone reads:

TILL THE RESURRECTION

Although Edney had died over 30 years previously, George is described in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records as “Son of David and Edney Stocking, of Thuxton”.

Beuvry Communal Cemetery Extension, France