Photo: David Sloan
G. Davidson
Coldstream Guards
18th June 1944 Age 28
He laid down his life
He died that we might live
Rest in peace
Guardsman Davidson was killed when The Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks, London, was hit by a V1 flying bomb. The blast demolished most of the building, built in 1838, with great loss of life. The building was full of people attending morning worship. 121 soldiers and civilians died and 141 others were seriously injured when tons of rubble fell on them.
Jan Gore has provided the following:
2656863 George Davidson, Coldstream Guards, aged 28, of Hamilton Road, Longsight, Manchester, was the son of Alexander and Jane Davidson, and stepson of Samuel Clegg, of New Herrington in Sunderland.
Alexander Davidson (1882-1935) married Jane Westmoreland (1895-) in Houghton-le-Spring in 1907. They had five children; he was a miner, according to the 1911 census, and died in the September quarter of 1935. Jane married Samuel Clegg in the September quarter of 1940 in Durham Northern.
George was born on 23 January 1916. He joined the Army in 1940; before that, he was a greyhound trainer at Belle Vue Stadium, Manchester. He married Henrietta Bessie Wheeler (1913-1943) in Manchester in 1940, and they had a daughter, followed by a son in the summer of 1943 in Manchester. Henrietta died soon afterwards of puerperal fever.
George was buried in Herrington (St. Cuthbert) Churchyard. Grave reference: Row 12, grave 25.
He is listed in the Scout Roll of Honour 1939-45 as "George Davison". He was connected to the 1st Herrington Group.
George Davidson is remembered at Herrington on H137.06
