George Jerome Dickson was born in 1894 in Battersea, London, the son of Jerome Dickson (1873-1954) and Sarah Ann Dickson née Sawyer (1867-1902). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1894 in the Wandsworth Registration District, London. On 22 July 1894 he was baptised in St Mary's Church, Putney High Street, London, where in the baptismal register his family were shown to be living at 29 Blondell Street, Battersea Park, London and that his father was a lamp lighter.
In the March 1901 census he is shown as aged 6 years and living in 2 rooms at 89 Philip Street, Battersea, with his parents and his sister Alice Mary Dickson (1895-1968). His father was described as a paper hanger.
In late 1902 his mother died and on 1 July 1906 his father married Emma Jane Frances Godbeer née Dunning (1873-1951), a widow, at All Saints Church, Battersea, where the marriage register shows his father still as a paper hanger and the family living at 21 Park Grove, Battersea.
He was appointed as an Assistant Postman in London In October 1910 and in the April 1911 census he was shown as a GPO telegraph messenger, aged 16 years, living at Woodbine Cottage, Orkney Street, Battersea, with his father, his step-mother and his sister. His father was described as a house painter.
In January 1913 he was promoted to the grade of Sorter at London’s Western District Office.
He had enlisted as a Rifleman in the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), service number 1427, a Territorial Force regiment, in March 1913 and subsequently transferred, firstly in March 1916 to the 3rd/15th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles), service number 6182 and finally as a Pioneer into the 2nd Special Company of the Corps of Royal Engineers, service number 129247. He was killed in action, aged 23 years, on the 6 April 1917 and his body was buried in Plot 6, Row B, Grave16 in the Ecoivres Military Cemetery, 1916 Route de Maroeuril, 62144 Mont-Saint-Eloi, Pas de Calais, France.
Probate records show his address to have been 40 Nine Elms Lane, Battersea and that when probate was granted on 20 June 1917 to a Charles Henry Hudson, an engineer, his effects totalled £78-0s-5d. On 5 July 1917 his grantee, Charles Henry Hudson, was sent his £9-14s-1d army effects and on 13 April 1920 his £12-10s-0d war gratuity was sent to his father. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as 'DICKSON, G.J.' on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the A Street Near You website, on Page 100 of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of of Remembrance 1914-1920 and on a family gravestone in Earlsfield (Wandsworth) Cemetery, Magdalen Road, London, SW18 3NP.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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