George Butt was killed in action on this day in 1916

George Henry Butt was born in Hawes, Yorkshire in 1895, the first child of Frederick Henry Butt (a railway signalman from Somerset) and his wife, Mary Alice née Kilburn.

George had a younger brother, Wilfred, and a younger sister, Elsie. In 1901, the family was living in a railway cottage in South Lunds near Aysgarth.

By 1911, the family was living in Long Preston, Hawes. George, now 15, was a farm labourer. He had an additional three younger brothers - Stanley, John Kilburn and Fred. In 1914, another brother, Edwin, was born but, unfortunately, in 1915, George's sister Elsie died after a short illness.

In January 1916, George went to Settle to enlist. He joined the Royal Horse Artillery as a gunner. After training, he was allocated to the 'D' Battery, 14th Brigade.

In June 1916, George was sent to France. He was engaged in the Battle of the Somme and almost immediately saw action during the early phases.

On 7 September 1916, George was killed in action while sheltering from counter-battery fire in a dugout near Montauban. All efforts, the diggers risking their lives, were made to dig the men out, but all were dead.

George was buried in what the Second Lieutenant of D 14 Battery described in a letter to George's parents as 'a little cemetery under the slope of a hill' - Quarry Cemetery, Montauban. After the war, cemetery was enlarged. In the bundle of personal effects his parents received their son's pocket book, a belt and a handkerchief.

Two years later, George's parents were to learn that his brother, Wilfred, had died in hospital in France on 1st August 1918.

122064 Gunner George Henry Butt, D Battery, 14th Brigade Royal Horse Artillery