G. Dimond
Service no. L/6478
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds age 18 on 9 November 1914
Son of Charles and Clara Dimond, of 44 Priory Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Poperinghe Old Military Cemetery, Belgium
Information from British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1918 and 1911 census
George Dimond joined up at the age of 18 just before the war started, on 27 April 1914. He lived for only 194 days after that, dying of wounds to the legs on 9 November 1914 at Poperinghe. Allied forces commandeered this town, the primary military centre for British forces located in Flanders and only 10km from Ypres, as a base from the early days of the war. It remained in Allied command, apart from a period between May and October 1914.
Dimond, blue-eyed with dark brown hair, was 5 feet 7½ inches, weighing 116 pounds, with a 33 inch chest he could expand by 2½ inches. In civilian life he was a sawyer’s assistant. The Army records show that Dimond’s parents were separated. In 1911 his mother Clara, then 50, is listed as a boarder at 104 Hartington Road – her occupation is “charwoman” and she is described as “married but separated”. Dimond’s father, Charles, 49, meanwhile was boarding in 27 Dawlish Street. Between them they had five daughters and George.
George is cited in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1918.
