George Edwin Whitfield 1892-1917

Private 36001, 8^th (Service) Bn., South Staffs

George was named after his grandfather who had worked for Penman as a presser at the New Pottery in Armitage and indeed had followed him to Glasgow where George had a son, John. Grandfather George eventually returned to Armitage to work as a presser at the Old Pottery when Edward Johns took over and John followed suit as soon as he was old enough. Grandfather George ‘retired’ as a potter and farmed a smallholding in Handsacre.

In 1890, still a presser, John married Sarah Ann Mallaber a farmer’s daughter from Alrewas and their first born, George Edwin Whitfield, was born in Armitage early in 1892. Subsequent children were born in Alrewas where John became a farmer presumably taking over his father-in-laws farm.

There are scant records of George’s war service – there are far more of his brother’s time in the Tank Corps – but we do know that he was killed on 12^th October 1917, probably in the Battle of Passchendale. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.