Corporal George Critchley. The picture on the left was taken after he enrolled for the Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles. In the picture on the right, Sergeant George Critchley is wearing his glasses and his cap badge is that of the Australian School of Musketry.
George wrote a postcard on 26th July 1916, from Hayling Island:
"This is our little squad. The battalions represented are: Kings Own Lancaster, Somerset, from Devon, Worcester, Hants, Berks, Devon, Cyclist, London & Gloster. Some mixture. Thanks ever so much for the tobacco you sent me. I hope to be at Tom's next weekend when we finish here on Thursday night. Look out for some Good news from France. We've heard something. Hospital ships have been passing here from Southampton continually too"
I will put the postcard picture, in which George appears to have a Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles cap badge, below, with George's message, which was on the back of the picture.
At the beginning of WW1, the commanding officer of George's regiment Lt Colonel R G Hayes refused to serve overseas and so did many of the men in his battalion. Also, like Rudyard Kipling's son John, George had poor eyesight. This can be seen in the boyhood pictures I have of him; he is usually screwing up his eyes. George's poor eyesight was also noted by Mollie and her mother
My guess is that neither George, nor his family expected him to be sent to the front on account of the policy of his regiment and his vision impairment. From accounts of the Battle of Amiens, Chipilly Ridge and Gressaire Wood, my guess is that George died on the ridge or in the wood. I heard from my grandparents that by 1918, there had been so many British casualties in the Great War, including George's brother William, that for the final allied offensive, George was among the reservists and territorials who were hastily posted.
Amiens may have been the beginning of the end, but allied casualties were high, more than 19,000 killed or wounded. George was in the 58th division of the 4th British Army which was deployed "hastily" necessitating an overnight march of nearly 30 kilometres. The intention was to continue the attack on Chipilly Ridge and Gressaire Wood, but there was "considerable confusion" according to accounts. There were tanks deployed in the offensive, some were "whippets". The Royal Flying Corps (formed a few months earlier) were expected to join the attack from the air, but the foggy weather inhibited this tactic. The allies included, Australians, Canadians, British, French and Americans. In the confusion there were 'friendly fire' errors and poison gas spoiled the British rations before they could be distributed. By 9th August the British, Canadian and Australian infantry had outrun the supporting artillery. It was not until August 11th that the Canadian commander, Arthur Currie, urged common sense. He persuaded the allied commanders to fall back and consolidate the gains they had made. But it was too late for George.
What angered George's close and loving family, apart from the fact that he was never found, was the short factual letter from the war office to James and Ellen Critchley announcing his death. George's grieving parents were later sent a poor quality photograph of the Vis en Artois memorial on which George's name is barely readable near the top. These last weeks of the Great War had a terrible death toll among all nationalities. There was another nationality involved in the action. The British had recruited and shipped Chinese labourers to the Somme. They were mainly employed on logistics, but for a couple of years after the war, they continued the grim task of finding the remains of the dead in the killings fields. I managed to find a picture of the memorial to George's battalion at Amiens: "The 58th" My guess is that the English flag on the nearby building was put there intentionally. It will be below George's postcard.
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