Lance Corporal George Eitken was an English soldier of the British Army who died during the First World War.
He was born on 16 July 1898,[1] in London, the only son of George and Jane (Jeannie) Von Eitken, of Argentina and Austria, respectively. At the time of the 1911 census, the Von Eitken family were resident at 169 Upper Dale Street, Derby. Eitken attended Christ Church School, at Waterloo, and Municipal Secondary School, Derby.[1] He volunteered on 22 October 1915, claiming his age to be 19 years and 125 days.[2]
Eitken died in the early hours of 22 July 1916, during the Somme Offensive, while serving with the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment). He was killed in a German trench at Waterlot Farm, near Longueval, while at the head of a bombing party, as the designated "first bayonet man". He had arrived on the Western Front on 22 February.[1]
He has no known grave and is commemorated by the Thiepval Memorial.
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References[]
- Eitken, George, cwgc.org. Retrieved 3 December 2012.