Private George Flaxington
This man appears to be the George Flaxington born on 4 September 1885 in Leeds, Yorkshire, one of at least four children of labourer (formerly private in the 5th Dragoon Guards) James Wilcock Flaxington and his wife Charlotte (formerly Wilson, née Kent). His father died soon after he was born. By the time of the 1901 Census he was living at 5 Evanston Row, Leeds, with his mother and step-father (Albert Hugh Corless), three brothers and two half- siblings, and working as an iron moulder.
Flaxington enlisted in the Royal Navy on 19 January 1902, but purchased his discharged ten weeks later. On 31 July that year at Leeds he enlisted in the York and Lancaster Regiment (No.9440). Later that year, on 16 October, he was permitted a discharge in order that he re-enlist in the Corps of Hussars. Two days after that, however, he was transferred to the South Wales Borderers (No.7769), and on 19 November to the Royal Field Artillery (No.28773) with the rank of driver.
On 27 September 1904 Flaxington was tried and imprisoned for 84 days (offence not known), though the sentence was later reduced to 56 days. He was discharged for misconduct on 5 June 1905.
He later re-enlisted, in the 3rd (King's Own) Hussars (No.8037), embarking for France with the regiment on 26 August 1914.
In September 1917, as part of a general reduction in the size of the cavalry, a number of men of the 3rd Hussars left the regiment. Its war diary of 15 September records that:
56 other ranks of the regiment proceeded by rail from Hesdin to the Rouen Base for transfer to Infantry on the reduction of the 100 dismounted men allowed to Cavalry regiments.
Between twenty-eight and thirty-four of these men, including Flaxington, were transferred to the North Irish Horse, joining the 1st (NIH) Regiment in the field on 11 October. Flaxington was issued regimental number 2722.
In February-March 1918 the regiment, which had been serving as corps cavalry to V Corps, was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps until the end of the war.
Flaxington was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve, on 2 May 1919.
After the war he returned to Leeds, where he was employed as a postman. He died there on 4 May 1931 and was buried in the Yeadon Cemetery.
Three of Flaxington's brothers also served in the war. James Francis Wilson Flaxington served in the Royal Engineers and West Yorkshire Regiment. The Yorkshire Evening Post of 21 September 1918 reported that he had been awarded a Military Medal. Francis Flaxington served in the Royal Field Artillery and Royal Garrison Artillery. William Flaxington, a regular soldier in the King's Royal Rifle Corps from 1902, died of wounds on 27 March 1915.
An account of a gallant act by a Leeds man is recorded in a letter written by Rifleman W. Sissons to his wife in Leeds. Sissons says:--
"I saw a fine thing on the 18th. We went out to take some German prisoners. When the German artillery began to shell us we got orders to retire, and on the way Jack Anderson got hit in the neck. Billy Flaxington, one of our fellows, at once went out under a shower of bullets and brought him in. Even our officers cheered."
(Leeds Mercury, 13 October 1914)His relatives in Leeds have received an intimation of the death from wounds received at Neuve Chapelle of Rifleman W. Flaxington, 2nd Battalion King's Royal Rifles. Flaxington, who was a Reservist, was called up on August, 21st, and was invalided home because of wounds received at Ypres. Recovering from these he went back to the front, three of his brothers being there. In the course of the fighting he made a gallant rescue of a comrade whilst under heavy fire. He leaves a widow and four children.
(Yorkshire Post, 22 April 1915)
George's brother William, from the Leeds Mercury, 13 October 1914