Photo: Brian Chandler
The family headstone reads:
Bombardier George Robert Bull
1st City of London R.F.A.
who was accidentally killed at Shankhouse
on January 4th 1915 aged 21 years.
Erected by the Officers
and men of Ammunition ?group.
Doreen Morton has submitted the following:
Bombardier George Robert Bull, billeted at Cramlington, was the son of George & Rachael Bull. The 1911 census states his age as 16. He was a jeweller's assistant, living with his parents in Shepherd’s Bush, London.
George unfortunately died whilst training in Cramlington. The artillery equipment was left overnight in yard behind the Coop in Shankhouse. The men were learning how to mount and dismount the horses pulling the guns carriages. As the troops emerged under the archway, he was sitting facing backwards on the gun carriage, as was the correct procedure. He hit his head on archway, dying instantly, before even going to war.
His troop was commanded by Lt.Col. Pleydell Bouverie. The men described Cramlington as “a typical North country village situated in bleak country and surrounded by coal pits, black pit heaps and numerous stacks belching forth volumes of smoke"
He must have been popular at work in London, as his workmates and employers added their own memorial to his grave.
He was given a military funeral with military band, coffin on gun carriage, etc.
George Robert Bull is not remembered on a local War Memorial.
