LANCE CORPORAL GEORGE CHARLES FOOT, DCM
Crew of Deborah
(40342)
Lance Corporal George Charles Foot, 40342, DCM, of ‘D’ Battalion,
Tank Corps, was only three months past his 20th birthday when he was
killed on November 20th, 1917.
Within days of his
death, 2/Lt Heap sent a hand-written note to his father. Heap said:
"We all feel his loss very deeply, for his cheery spirits and
unfailing good nature had endeared him to all...It is impossible
that a soul like George's should not go on living. I feel convinced
I shall meet him again."
George had already been
awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his part in the battle of
the Somme a year earlier, when tanks were deployed by the British
for the first time.
His DCM Citation in ‘The London
Gazette’ number 29824 of Tuesday 14 November 1916 states ‘40342 Gnr.
G.C.Foot, Mach. Gun Corps, ‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. He
displayed great courage and determination fighting with his Tank.
Later, he remained for thirty hours with a wounded officer under
heavy fire.''
George was born on September 3rd, 1897,
at 153 Arlington Road, Regents Park, St.Pancras, in north London.
His father, Charles Ernest Foot was born in St Pancras and married a
girl from nearby Hoxton, Caroline Foot (formerly Todd). The wedding
was in the second quarter of 1897.
At this stage,
George’s father was a commercial traveller, selling musical
instruments, and the family moved home frequently in north London.
In 1901, when George was three, the family lived at 61 Etherley Road
in Tottenham; his brother Charles was born in Edmonton, and a third
brother Ronald in Islington.
At some stage, probably
just before the outbreak of war, the family bought or rented a house
called ‘The Roses’ at Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, but also
had a house in Anson Road in north London.
The home of the Foot family
Documents in the City of Westminster archive indicate that by now,
George’s father Charles was commercial manager for Hawkes & Co, the
musical instrument makers and music publishers, which later became
part of Boosey & Hawkes.
George must have travelled
from the family home in Great
Missenden to enlist at Aylesbury; he served in the Welsh
Regiment before transferring to the new Tank Corps.
He
now lies in grave III.B.5, at Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery. The
CWGC register records Anson Road as his parents’ home, but his name
appears on a plaque in Great Missenden High Street, and on a war
memorial beside the church of St Peter & St Paul.
George’s father Charles died in 1930. His brother
Charles died at the age of three, in 1902. His youngest brother
Ronald lived until 1979, and died at Whittington Hospital in
Islington; Ronald was described as a musical instrument
manufacturer. Ronald's son - George's nephew - still lives in north
London.
The War Memorial at Great Missenden
Buckinghamshire
Remembers website
War Memorial beside the tower of the village church
- St Peter and St Paul.