George Carlyon Armstrong was killed in action on this day in 1915
George Carlyon Armstrong was born at Weybridge on 5 June 1896, the only son of Commander Sir George Armstrong, Bart., RN, and Lady Armstrong of 24 Hans Road, Knightsbridge, London, and Winloed, Pangbourne.
The following year, the family was living at 4 Ashburn Place, Hanover Square in London.
George had a younger sister, Mary, born 1903.
He was educated at Ludgrove and at Eton. At the latter, he won several prizes for rowing.
In August 1914, he was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Special Reserve, Coldstream Guards and, for active service, he was attached to the 1st Battalion, and went to the front in December 1914. Shortly after his arrival, 2nd Lieutenant Armstrong took part in the attack by his Battalion on 22 December at Givenchy.
“When” to quote the words of an officer of the Indian Corps who witnessed the fight “they marched forward without the least hesitation under the most terrific fire as though they were on parade.”
After the action at Cuinchy on 25 January 1915, 2nd Lieutenant Armstrong was reported “missing”, but it was later confirmed that he fell on that date. See here for more information about The Coldstream Guards at Cuinchy in 1915.
Owing to the blowing up of the trenches occupied by the Scots Guards, the enemy had effected a breach in the British lines, with the result that the trench held by the Coldstream Guards was exposed. When last seen alive, 2nd Lieutenant Armstrong was emptying his revolver into the oncoming Germans with his wounded men around him, after ordering those who had time to do so to retire by the communication trench. Of the thirteen officers of his Battalion who took part in the engagement that morning, ten were killed, wounded or missing. 2nd Lieutenant Armstrong was killed by a bullet wound in the chest. He was 18 years old.
He is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial in Richebourg.
Sir George and Lady Armstrong commissioned a stained-glass Memorial window at St James the Less Church in Pangbourne, in memory of their only son George Carlyon Armstrong and their nephew Philip Furlong Armstrong.
The window was designed by Karl Parsons. The inscription reads
"In Praise & Thanksgiving to God & to the glorious memory of George Carlyon Armstrong 2nd Lieut 1st Battn Coldstream Guards who fell in action at Cuinchy on Jan 25th 1915 aged eighteen years & of all those in this Parish who gave their lives for King & Country in the Great War 1914-1919”
2nd Lieutenant George Carlyon Armstrong, Special Reserve, attd. 1st Bn Coldstream Guards