George Harold Groom was born on the 11th October 1896 at Hanmer Flintshire.
The census of 1901 records the family living at Carnben Bank Hanmer. Head of the household was Levi Groom aged 37. He was a Bricklayer. His wife Elizabeth was 37. Their listed children were Henry 14, Mary 13, Ethel 11, George 4, Muriel 2 and Ruth 1.
The next census of 1911 finds the family living at Horseman’s Green, Whitchurch. Levi was then 47 and still a Bricklayer. His wife of 25 years, Elizabeth was 47. She had given birth to 9 children, two of whom had died. (Sadly two boys had died. James was born in 1892 and died in 1896. John was born in 1895 and he also sadly died in 1896). Listed at home for the census were George who was 14 and a scholar. Muriel was 12, Ruth 11, Kathleen 6.
. George started at Hanmer school on November 2nd 1903 and left school on August 26th 1910
George enlisted in Whitchurch and joined the Kings Royal Rifles as a rifleman in November 1915. He landed in France on 11th November 1916. He was invalided home with trench fever for 6 months and returned to France in July 1917. He was wounded on the 20th September 1917 at Poperinge, West Vlaanderen Belgium and died of his wounds three days later. He was aged 20.
George is buried in Godewaersvelde Military Cemetery, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.
In the Register of Soldier’s effects (Accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk), in which the army calculated what moneys were owed to deceased soldiers, there is an entry for George. It says that his mother Lizzie was paid a total of £14 ..16sh ..10d in two separate payments.
He is remembered on the Hanmer war memorial, in the Hanmer Remembrance book, on the headstone of the family grave in St Chad’s Church Hanmer and on the North Wales national memorial the Bangor Arch.
