George William Wilson

Private George William Wilson, enlisted at Nottingham and served with the 16th Battalion Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment (Chatsworth Rifles), he was killed in action on 25th March 1918. He is buried in Beacon Cemetery, Sailly-Laurette, France.

His death took place shortly after the Separation Allowance was taken from his wife and transferred to his mother, Fanny Wilson, due to his wife's adultery; she was reportedly pregnant with the child of a Military Policeman. He had escaped a prison sentence on 25th October 1917 after being found guilty of stabbing her twice with a German pocket knife. His case was published on 25th October 1917 in the Nottingham Evening Post :- “UNFAITHFUL WIFE. “NOTTINGHAM SOLDIER USES THE KNIFE. “TO RETURN TO THE ARMY. “A sad story was unfolded at the Nottingham Guildhall to-day [25th October 1917], when a soldier, named George Wm. Wilson, 21, of Constance-street, was charged with assaulting his wife, Phyllis, with a knife. “The woman said that last night her husband came in with an escort and asked to see the children. As they would not be good he suggested that she should go upstairs. She did so, and he stabbed her twice in the back with a knife, and the escort had to strike him to prevent further violence. “In reply to Mr. R. A. Young, who defended she admitted having committed misconduct with a man at Lincoln, for which her husband forgave her, and that she was now in a certain condition by a man whom she called “Red Cap” (meaning a military policeman). “Dr. H. O. Taylor said the woman had two wounds, but they were not dangerous. “Mr. Young then related a pathetic story. While admitting that there was no such thing in England as “the unwritten law,” he asked the magistrates (Ald. Spalding and Ald. Cook) not to have regard merely to the drybones of the law. Defendant had been on active service, and in the course of a dangerous advance he secured a pocket-knife from a German – the knife he used on this occasion. When he went away ten or eleven months ago he consented to overlook an act of unfaithfulness on his wife’s part with a man at Lincoln, and he continued her separation allowance. When he came home and found that she had again been unfaithful, he threatened to destroy her “ring paper” (the paper on which the separation allowance was recorded), along with which was his railway pass, but she refused to return the pass until it had expired, the result being that he rendered himself liable to arrest as an absentee. This was particularly galling for a man who intended returning to his regiment. “When the escort arrived he asked for permission to say goodbye to his children, and the escort allowed him to do so. Knowing that his wife had been twice unfaithful to him, and that his arresting [was] due to her, he lost his temper, and on the spur of the moment struck her twice with the knife. Of course, in English law could not legally use a weapon unless he actually found his wife in an act of unfaithfulness or to save his own life, but morally there was as much to be said for him as there as for an officer who went to greater lengths – one remembered the recent case of Lieut. Montagu. Mr. Young asked the Bench to consider the grave provocation which the man had received. “The Chairman in adjourning the case generally, said the Bench had taken into consideration the fact that prisoner’s wife had admitted one of the greatest crimes that a woman could commit against her husband, and he conduct was made worse by the fact that he was defending his country. He had been badly treated, but at the same time he had committed a serious offence in using the knife. The magistrates thought, however, he would be more useful in the army than in prison.” Above report is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918