Draft:George Edward Schultz
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Comment: How can the portrait photo be the author's own work, if, as it states, it was taken in 1915? DoubleGrazing (talk) 15:58, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
George Edward Schultz (14 February 1887-19 August 1917) was a British Army Captain in the First World War, in the first-ever 'Bantam' battalion (formed to accommodate volunteers who were below the Army's minimum height requirement). He served in northern France, and was killed in August 1917 leading an assault on a hill in Picardy known as The Knoll. His grave is in the nearby village cemetery at Villers-Faucon. A blue plaque was erected by the Oxton Society, Birkenhead, in his memory in 2021 outside the house where he was born.
Early life
[edit]George Schultz was born in Oxton, Birkenhead, on 14 February 1887 into a well-to-do family: his grandfathers owned a stockbroking and a sugar-refining business in Liverpool.[1][2] He moved with his parents and sisters to St Andrews, Fife, where he spent most of his childhood, later attending Trinity College, Glenalmond.[3] After his father's death, the family returned to Oxton. George secured a job with the Liverpool, London & Globe Insurance Company in Liverpool and spent his spare time as a volunteer in the 1st Cheshire Rifle Volunteers (the 'Cheshire Greys') and then in the Regiment's 4th (Territorial) Battalion, both based in Birkenhead, rising to the rank of Lieutenant.[4][5]
In 1911, he travelled to British Columbia to start a new life, intending to return for his fiancée.[6] However, on the outbreak of the First World War, he immediately returned home to reenlist.[7]
Army service
[edit]As there was no opening for a Lieutenant in his former battalion, George was appointed as one of the very first officers in the newly-created 1st Birkenhead (Bantam) Battalion.[8] This was one of three battalions set up by Alfred Bigland, the local MP, for keen volunteers below the Army's normal minimum height, known locally as 'Bigland's Birkenhead Bantams', and forming part of Kitchener's New Army.[9] (The Battalion was soon to be absorbed into the Cheshire Regiment as the 15th (Bantam) Battalion, later retitled 15th (Service) Battalion.) George was rapidly promoted to the rank of Captain, taking command of a Company; and he married his fiancée Rose Partington in St Peter's Church, Formby on 14 April 1915, during the Battalion's period of training in England.
At the end of January 1916, George finally set sail for active service in northern France. Over the next 20 months, he led his company during periods of trench warfare in French Flanders, the Battle of the Somme, Arras, and Picardy. For part of the time he was second in command of the Battalion and writer of the official Battalion diary. He was allowed to return home briefly after the birth of his son (whom he met only once) and for his mother's funeral.[10] One of his acts of bravery during the Battle of the Somme was described by a fellow officer as "a fine thing to do".[11]
On 19 August 1917, he and another company commander led an assault on a strategic position in Picardy known as The Knoll. Having escaped all injury up to this point, he was hit by shrapnel and died of his wounds in a field ambulance.[4] [10] He was buried in the village cemetery in nearby Villers-Faucon.[12]
A blue plaque, erected in 2021 by the Oxton Society outside the house where he was born, was unveiled by Major Paul Hands from the nearby Army Reserve Centre, to commemorate not just George but also the other 920 Birkenhead Bantams killed during the First World War.[13]
Bibliography
[edit]Schultz, John, The Road to the Knoll, The Life of Captain George Edward Schultz of the Birkenhead Bantams, Unpublished, 2019
Schultz, John and Knowles, Bob, Captain George Edward Schultz, Stalwart of the Birkenhead Bantams, Oxton History, NEATNIK, 2021, oxtonsociety.org.uk
References
[edit]- ^ Liverpool Stock Exchange, Members' Book
- ^ "Coroner's Inquest Verdict". Liverpool Mercury. 6 September 1856.
- ^ Trinity College, Glenalmond, Glenalmond Chronicle, June 1901
- ^ a b Liverpool Courier, 31 August 1917
- ^ London Gazette, 19 July 1910, issue 28396, page 5158
- ^ "Passenger Lists leaving the UK 1890-1960". Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ "Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960". Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ London Gazette Supplement, 6 February 1915, issue 29061, page 1289
- ^ McGreal, Stephen (2006). The Cheshire Bantams. Pen and Sword Military.
- ^ a b 15th (Service) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, War Diaries and Battalion Operation Orders, National Archives
- ^ Johnston, Harrison (1919). Extracts from an Officer's Diary, 1914-18, being the story of the 15th and 16th Service Battalions, the Cheshire Regiment (originally Bantams). Geo Falkner & Sons.
- ^ The War Graves of the British Empire, France 363-367, Imperial War Graves Commission
- ^ "Oxton in the spotlight as soldier is honoured with Blue Plaque". Oxton Society Newsletter (November 2021).