BULLOCK George Sidney

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for army casualties located in Worcester Cathedral.

George Sidney Bullock was the son of William and Laura Bullock. The family seems to have moved around a bit. George was born in Kings Norton in 1899 and in 1901 was living in Salford Priors. By 1911 the family had moved to Church Lench where his father was an agricultural engineer. With the introduction of compulsory military service in 1916 men tended to be posted to any unit rather than the local one. So it was that when George Bullock enlisted at Pershore he was posted to the Devonshire Regiment.

In 1918 he was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, part of 23rd Brigade 8th Division. With the end of the war on the Eastern Front the Germans launched a huge offensive in the west with the aim of winning the war before large scale American forces could deploy. The attack began on March 21st with considerable initial success with British forces being pushed back some 40 miles. By the third week of April the 8th Division had taken over Villers-Bretonneux plateau south of Amiens. Amiens was an important railway centre with an attack on it a real probability. The Division took over the sector on April 20th and spent two days strengthening the defences. At 4 a.m. on 24th April a huge bombardment opened initially with gas but later with shrapnel and high explosive. At about 07.30 German tanks supported by infantry were seen advancing towards the British lines. After much fierce fighting the attack was held. George Sidney Bullock was killed on 24th April aged 19 and is buried in Adelaide Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, 10 miles east of Amiens on the road to St Quentin.

A photograph of Private G.S. Bullock of Church Lench can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 6th July 1918, available at Worcestershire Archives.