George Phillips Salter

A Sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, George died on 13th of November 1916 at the age of 22. 

George was born at Stowupland, Suffolk, in 1894, a son of George Henry and Margaret Salter. He was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Stowupland, on 11 March 1894. In 1901 his family lived at The Police Station, Stowupland. By 1911 his family were living at Diss and by 1915 their home was at 42 Beaconsfield Road,

George volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 17567. He arrived in France on 3 August 1915 to join the 2nd Battalion. He was wounded in August/September 1915 and his name appears in the War Office Daily List of casualties 11 October 1915. By the summer of 1916 he had been promoted to Corpora. George was wounded in August 1916 and his name appears in the War Office Daily List 26 September 1916.

Colonel Murphy’s ‘The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927’ has the following account of the 2nd Battalion’s attack at Serre on 13 November 1916:

At 5 a.m. the first wave floundered forward into No Man’s Land – in reality, a sea of mud in which movement was barely possible. Three quarters of an hour later the attack began. The mist which hung about the low ground thickened as the smoke of the barrage increased, making direction extremely difficult to maintain. Within a very short time all the officers in the leading companies had fallen, and owing to lack of leaders no real progress was made. In spite of the atrocious weather conditions prevailing, portions of the leading Suffolk companies actually reached the German second line. But all was in vain, and the battalion having been reorganised in its original front line, remained there for the rest of the day, marching back to Courcelles the next morning. Their casualties numbered 272, including eleven officers.  

George was killed in action on 13 November.