George Staniland

George enlisted in Retford and served with the 11th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers and died of his wounds on 6th September 1918 and is buried in St Venant- Roecq Road British Cemetery Robecq, France. Pte G Staniland Retford Times 4th Oct 1918 Mrs C Staniland of North Leverton, last week received the sad news of the death from wounds in France of her eldest son, Pte G Staniland, Royal Scots Fusiliers. He had not been in France long, and much sympathy is felt for his widowed mother and his young wife in their bereavement. In the course of a beautiful letter to his wife, the Chaplain of the regiment writes of him as follows:- “Just after breakfast, he and seven others were sitting in their little dugout when a shell burst just outside and some of the splinters came through the door. Your husband had both his legs badly wounded and from the first it was seen that he was very seriously wounded. The doctor worked with him all afternoon most nobly. I was there all the time and I can testify alike to the fight put up by your husband and by the doctor for the precious life but it was all in vain. Never once during all these hours of watching and working did we hear one murmur or one wrong word escape your husband’s lips. He was simply splendid. I am speaking nothing but the truth when I say that I have never seen pain endured so bravely and unflinchingly. In the afternoon about 4 O’Clock he was taken down to the field ambulance where he died almost immediately after arrival. Very sincerely and very humbly I beg you to think of the high respect he was held in by one and all officers and men alike, in the Battalion: and how he died bravely and nobly sacrificing himself to the very utmost for the cause of his country. Please accept the sympathy of the officer commanding and all the other men of the unit.

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