Part 2His pension card has the following service numbers and Regiments on listed in the
following order:
• 5/589 then 47513 Northumberland Fusiliers
• 20853 Durham Light Infantry (14 Mar 1919)
• 34456 West Yorkshire Regiment
• 60431 Royal Defence Corps (Treatment)
It’s not known if this is the order he has been in the various regiments however the service
numbers would suggest that he started in the 5th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers and
stayed with them long enough to be allocated his new number. It’s also known that he
definitely ended his service in the Royal Defence Corps. This was used for home defence
and quite often filled with older men or those who had been wounded and were not fit
enough to go back overseas.
What is known is that his address on the pension card is recorded as 18 Churchill Street
which is his parents’ home. His parents died within months of each other not long after the
date it’s thought George was awarded his pension. His father died during the first quarter
of 1920 followed by his mother in the second quarter of 1920.
That address was not changed during all of his payments, the first of which was on the
23rd of February 1920 and the last of which appears to be on the 16th of March 1923
which it says is to last until the 24th of March 1925 so presumably he was living in his
parents old home the whole time.
The pension payments were made for him, his wife and four children however on the
payment made on the 28th of April 1920 there is a note saying “instead of
??award,
wife dead”. The missing word is difficult to read, it begins with C, but the payments
continued for everyone so maybe his wife’s payment was made for a carer instead,
meaning the money would have been for his sister in law Amelia.
It is interesting that the pension card shows the money is for 4 children so perhaps all four
boys were living with Amelia and their grandparents during the war. It could be that when
George moved back home he was unable to look after the young children and that their
grandparents death was the point they were sent into care. This is pure guess work and
will only be known for sure if the Barnardo’s records are obtained.
George did not survive for long after the war, he died in 1927.
On the 12 of November 1927 a pension application was received from his sister in law,
Amelia Caroline Robson, the card says she is the guardian of children and the date 1932 is
written on the bottom so she may have been awarded the payments for a further 6 years.
