G. F. Geleit
Service no. B/200790
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 13th Battalion
Killed in action age about 33 on 29 May 1917
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA
Information from the censuses
George Geleit was 3rd generation German, his grandfather, August Geleit, having emigrated to London some time before 1871.
In 1911 George Geleit, who was born in Bermondsey, was 27 and married to Clara, aged 25, from Walworth. They had two young children they had named after themselves: George, 2, and Clara, 1, both born in Brixton. The family lived in 2 rooms at 87 Hackford Road (this address is now Van Gogh House – the artist lodged there from August 1873). George described himself as a “housekeeper”.
The 1891 shows Annie Geleit, a 30-year-old widow from Bermondsey, living with her 3 sons, including George Geleit, 7, at 26, Russell Street, in north Brixton.
The 1871 census shows an August Geleit, 46, a tailor, and Caroline (possibly Christina) Geleit, 32, both born in Germany living with their 5 children at Houghton Street, Westminster. August died in 1887.
Geleit means escort or convoy in German.
