Cheshire Regiment
Derek Johnstone and Carole Fife have provided the following:
George Baird Summers was born at Bebside, Northumberland about 1884 to parents Edward Summers, a colliery engineman, and Elizabeth Summers who were both born in Bamburgh.
In 1901, his family lived at 2 West Row, Cowpen, Blyth when he was nine years old. Also in the house was his sister Margaret aged 10.
By 1911 his father had died and his mother and sister Margaret were working on a farm. At this time his family lived at 1, Swanns Cottages, Bedlington where George, now 15 was working in the coal mines as a pony driver underground. The census shows his mother was a farm labourer and his sister was a milker on a farm.
Military records are available and show he enlisted at Bedlington on 20th December 1914, when he was a miner living at West Sleekburn Farm.
Medical details showed that he was 5 foot 11 inches tall and weighed 142 lbs. In November 1915 he was charged with gambling in his hut and punished.
George was originally in the Northumberland Fusiliers but transferred to Cheshire Regiment on 4th September 1916. The records also show he was a qualified sniper and was wounded in action by a gunshot wound to his right arm.
After George’s death, his sister, who was now Margaret Taylor (age 29), was living at 26, Red Row Bedlington. The CWGC records show his mother Elizabeth Summers living at 34, Kings Road, Bedlington Station.
George Baird Summers is remembered in Bedlington on B15.06, in Choppington on C36.01 and in Stakeford on S71.02
