Pvt George F Hill • Foulsham

Private George Frederick Hill served in 1^st/ 6^th Battalion Durham Light Infantry.

George had worked as a chauffeur and lived with his family on Station Road before the war. George was just 19 when he died, but we have a unique insight into the last year of his life. George was injured and taken prisoner of war in March of 1918 and held until the September. On his return to the UK in the September he gave a statement which describes his experience in his own words. An extract of the document, which is held by the National Archives, reads:

               ‘I was caught by shrapnel on the 28^th March 1918 on the St Quentin front and wounded in both legs and hands, my right leg being practically blown away and only hanging by the flesh. The Germans took me prisoner and I was placed on a stretcher in a cart drawn by a horse, and was left there for six hours before being taken to the field ambulance behind the line. I do not known the name of the place.

At the field ambulance a German doctor immediately amputated my right leg below the thigh (under an anesthetic), dressed my wounds, gave me brandy and treated me well.’

George goes on to describe the conditions in the hospital, his treatment, and other aspects of his time in captivity.  While he survived the war, he would die a few months after his release from the wounds he received in France. He passed away on December 6^th 1918, aged just 19 years old. 

Grid Ref : TG 03342 25081

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