Company Serjeant Major George Henry FLEMMING
Remembrance - The Yorkshire Regiment, First World War
CSM George FLEMMING
3/8878
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Company Serjeant Major George Henry FLEMMING

Photo and biographical information below.


Company Serjeant Major George Henry FLEMMING. 3/8878.

9th Battalion. Son of the late Gilbert and Mary Flemming; husband of Rose Elizabeth Flemming, of 5, Albion St., Aylesbury, Bucks.
Killed 21 September 1916. Aged 41.
Born Hoxton (London), Enlisted London, Resided Aylesbury.
Commemorated Pier and Face 3 A and 3 D, Thiepval Memorial


CSM George Henry Flemming, and an obituary from the Green Howards Gazette
CSM George Henry Flemming, and an obituary from the Green Howards Gazette
(Photo from the Green Howards Gazette)

Company Serjeant Major George Henry Flemming. 3/8878. 9th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. Son of the late Gilbert and Mary Flemming; husband of Rose Elizabeth Flemming, of 5, Albion St., Aylesbury, Bucks. Killed 21 September 1916. Aged 41.
Born Hoxton (London), Enlisted London, Resided Aylesbury.

John Sly (<sly211@btinternet.com>) has provided some additional information on CSM Flemming.

GEORGE HENRY FLEMMING

Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902 5829 Cpl G.H.FLEMING,
Clasps Relief Of Kimberley Yorkshire Regt
Paardeberg
Driefontein
Johannesburg
Diamond Hill
Belfast

King’s South Africa Medal 5829 Serjt: G.H.FLEMMING.
Clasps South Africa 1901 York: Regt
South Africa 1902

1914-15 Star 3-8878 C.S.Mjr.G H FLEMMING
York.R.

Queen’s South Africa Medal confirmed on roll WO 100/178 f 29 (name spelt with one M). King’s South Africa Medal confirmed on roll WO 100/326 f 124 (two Ms).

Army Medal Office rolls record that he served in both 10/ and 9/Yorkshire Regiment. He disembarked in France 9 September 1915 with 10th Battalion.

He was awarded a posthumous Mention-in-Despatches 4 January 1917.

Copy of service record from WO 97/4845 (name spelt with two Ms).

Flem(m)ing was an assumed name. He was born 30 April 1871 at 69 Nicholas Street, Hoxton Old Town, the son of Gilbert Corben, a solicitor’s clerk, and his wife Elizabeth (nee Fleming). He was registered as Gilbert Henry Corben.

In the 1881 census he was living with the family at 54 De Beauvoir Crescent, Shoreditch; he was recorded as age nine, a scholar, born Hoxton, Middlesex. In 1891 he was still with the family at the same address; he was age nineteen, a mantle cutter (dress), born Shoreditch, Middlesex.

On 23 May 1892 he enlisted for the Royal Marines at Portsmouth. He stated that he was born in Shoreditch, that he was a mantle cutter, and that his next of kin was his father Gilbert living at 19 Mortimer Road, Kingsland Road, London. He was five feet five and a half inches tall, had a fresh complexion, brown hair and blue eyes. He was numbered 6292. He was promoted Corporal 23 May 1894, and appointed Lance-Sergeant 11 September 1896. He deserted 1 February 1898.

When he attested for the Yorkshire Regiment on 4 May 1898 he stated his name as George Henry Flemming (a version of his mother’s maiden surname), his birthplace as Islington, his age as twenty-three years nine months (he was actually twenty-seven), and his occupation as clerk. He gave his next of kin as his sister, Elizabeth Givins, probably to avoid any connection with the maiden name of his mother, who was still alive.

He enlisted into the 3rd Special Reserve Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment probably sometime after the outbreak of the war, and was posted to 10/Yorkshire Regiment as WO II, Company Sergeant Major.

When he married Rose Elizabeth Tomblin, a thirty-year old spinster of 55 Charles Street, Berkhamsted, at the Congregational Church, Berkhamsted, on 30 May 1915, he was living
at 2 Shrublands Avenue, Berkhamsted; he was described as a forty-two year old widower, and Company-Sergeant-Major, 10/Yorkshire Regiment. He stated that his father’s name was Gilbert Flemming.

He was listed as wounded in the Green Howards Gazette for December 1915 while serving with 10/Yorkshire Regiment (indicating that he was almost certainly wounded at Loos). Serving with 9/Yorkshire Regiment, he was killed while on a reconnaissance, and this was recorded in the GHG for December 1916, when a photograph was also published.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he was aged forty-one, the son of the late Gilbert and Mary Flemming, and the husband of Rose Elizabeth Flemming of 5 Albion Street, Aylesbury, Bucks. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. Soldiers Died In The Great War records that he was born in Hoxton, and enlisted London (living in Aylesbury). He was killed in action in France 21 September 1916 serving with 9/Yorkshire Regiment.

He appears in a photograph of the NCOs serving with 2nd Provisional Battalion published in the GHG for March 1899.

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