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‘…this morning I had a good weep; I believe you have gone into action. I pray that God will bring you through safely don’t worry darling you will have the luck to pull through….’
George was born on 20th January 1912 at the family home 39 Dawber Street, Worksop. He went to Crown Street School, now Redlands Primary and later worked at Albion Flour Mills, Eastgate. He married Gwendoline in 1934 and they had four children – Joan, Roy, Terry, and Valerie.
He joined the army on 27th July 1940 and was known, for the rest of the war as 4983971 Private G Foulds.
Before being sent to fight abroad in the 5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, he was granted leave to visit his family. They all waved goodbye to George on 24th May 1942 at Worksop railway station. This was the last time they saw him.
Then, before going home, they were taken to have a family photo taken in a garden at Stanley Street. Joan was six, Roy was four and a half years and remembers this moment clearly. Terry three and Valerie eighteen months are holding their mother’s hands in the photo.
George with his battalion travelled on the SS Bergensfjord to Egypt around Africa, a journey of seven weeks. Out of the 978 men on board, only about 180 survived.
The Seaforth Highlanders disembarked in Egypt. George’s battalion was part of the Eighth Army led by Lieutenant-General Montgomery who were preparing to maintain control of El Alamein in a battle against Field Marshall Rommel’s German and Italian troops.
George was able to write letters to his wife, Gwen, and received some in return updating him of news of the family and the ‘Home front.’
In a letter to Gwen on 12th September 1942 George mentions visiting Cape Town and Cairo also seeing ‘sand and more sand’. Exact locations were censored.
Gwen and the four little children received a Christmas card from George. This was about the same time as the telegram telling the family that George had been ‘killed in action’. He died at Marsa Brega, Libya whilst on evening patrol 4th-5th December 1942. The telegram that the families of all servicemen in the war dreaded.
George died at the age of 30, the same age as his father 26 years earlier in the first world war. George is remembered here in Worksop on the war memorials in St. John’s church and in the town, at the Benghazi War Cemetery, Libya Memorial and along with others from the Seaforth Highlanders and other Scottish regiments, in the chapel of Edinburgh Castle.
With our thanks to Roy, George’s son, for sharing copies of letters, photos, and other documents.
Roy aged 10 or 11, taken at St. John’s Boys in 1948 or 1949. Roy says, ‘the badge on my jacket was my dad’s cap badge which I treasured.’
Tom Foulds was born in Worksop in 1886 at the family home, 34 Church Walk, Worksop. Tom was the first child of Edward James and Mary Foulds but within a few years he had a brother and sister.
On leaving school Tom worked as a labourer and then a joiner at Messrs Bowman and Sons. He married Lillie Draper in 1911 and had two children, George in 1912 and Dorothy in 1915. The family lived at 54 Sandy Lane, Worksop.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War 1, Tom enlisted willingly in the army like so many of his generation. He became Private 20634 of 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment).
He enlisted at Worksop on 5th December 1914, along with his close friend, Private William T Davison, and they both were sent to France on 4th January 1915. Sadly, neither of them returned home.
Tom was killed at the battle of the Somme on 23rd August 1916. He was one of over three hundred thousand men killed in one of the most deadly battles in human history. He was just 30 years old.
Tom is remembered in Worksop in War memorials in St. John’s and Priory churches and also the Cenotaph in town. He is buried at Knightsbridge Cemetery, Mesnil-Martinsart, France.
With our thanks to Roy, George’s grandson, for sharing copies of letters, photos, and other documents.
office.worksopstjohn@gmail.com
St John’s Church,
Overend Road,
Worksop,
Nottinghamshire,
S80 1QG