Southam in WW1

Centenary Archive

Honouring those who died and all who served

Private George Frederick Sturley

The war records of G.F. Sturley reveal a man who went through a very tough time in WWI.  He endured punishments, was commended for gallantry, and was gassed during the Third Battle of Ypres. He suffered acutely with skin conditions and long-term throat disease afterwards.  Compared to his brother, W.W. Sturley (see this archive) George seems to have had an excruciatingly painful war.

George was born in 1890 youngest son of George F. Sturley (senior) who was Relieving Officer and his Napton born wife Elizabeth. It was a white-collar worker’s household and by 1911, George and his slightly older brother William, both were employed as clerks. They lived with their widowed mother in Bridge House, a nicely-appointed residence at the bottom of the town.

George Sturley enlisted in December 1914 and joined 99^th Field Ambulance 33^rd Division (T4/042663) as a driver. At first things did not go well. Before leaving England he was punished for ‘Neglecting to help manhandle a wagon’ and given ten days of ‘CC’ (confined to camp) and he embarked for Le Havre on 12^th November 1915 but within a month was in more serious trouble. For being ‘Absent from duty without leave’, on 21^st December, he was given seven days of Field Punishment no 2. Thus he spent his Christmas enduring excruciating and humiliating treatment for two or more hours per day plus hard labour.

There are no other blemishes to his record and from then on Private Sturley’s service was exemplary. In September 1917 he was transferred to Kings Own Royal Lancashire Regiment (KORL) and given a new number (28597