GEORGE IRELAND KING
1899 – 1921
The youngest of the three sons of James King and Aida Maria Ireland eligible for service in the Armed forces during the Great War. George was born in 1899 in Widecombe in the Moor. He had two elder brothers John and Owen, an elder sister Annie and two younger brothers Albert and Lewis.
Just a few weeks after his eighteenth birthday in March 1917 George followed the example of his elder brothers and enlisted in the Royal Navy. He commenced his basic training at HMS Vivid in Devonport.
George contracted pneumonia whilst at the training establishment and was invalided out of the Royal Navy in July 1917.
He returned to Widecombe and probably continued (when possible) in his former employment as a farm labourer.
George died in Newton Abbot in 1921 aged 22.
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