Tyne Cot Memorial
Heslop’s Local Advertiser 24/11/1917
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
George Wiffen was born 1879 at Felling, Gateshead, County Durham, one of 10 children of whom only 6 survived, he was the second of 3 sons and had 3 younger sisters. His father James Wiffen of Halstead, Essex, born in 1855 moved to the north east after 1871. He married at Newcastle-uponTyne, Isabella Robson Oram of Dunston, Gateshead born 1856, April 17th 1876. James, employed as a sawyer at a mill, lived with his wife, John (4) and George (2) in 1881 at Browns Place, Felling. Ten years later they had moved to Havelock Street where George (11) attended school, at the age of 19 he was unemployed and still living with his parents who had remained at Havelock Street. Only John working as a barman helped his father support the family.
George Wiffen was married in the district of Tynemouth, Northumberland in 1908 to Annie Brunton, they settled at 11, Coxon Street, Bill Quay where George was employed as a barman, his wife had given birth a son George Stanley Wiffen, April 20th 1908.
On the outbreak of war George Wiffen enlisted at Cramlington, Northumberland assigned as Private 1608 to the 18th (1st Tyneside Pioneers) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. After initial training near home they transferred to Ripon in Yorkshire and on to Salisbury Plain for final training before departing to France, landing at Le Havre, January 1916, just as preparations were underway for the forthcoming Battles of the Somme. As part of the 102nd Brigade, 34th Division they were part of the opening attacks during the Battle of Albert, July 1st-13th 1916 at La Boisselle but did not see action again until July 23rd-September 3rd 1916 at the Battle of Pozieres. Actions concluded on the Somme they moved to the Arras sector in 1917 and then north to the Ypres salient.
Private Wiffen had risen through the ranks and was now a Lance Corporal, he was also transferred to the 10th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action October 12th 1917 on the Ypres salient during the Third Battle of Ypres the concluding campaign and a phase of the Battle of Passchendaele. Due to the conditions of the battlefield, heavy clay and mud, his body was never recovered.
The sacrifice of Lance Corporal 18/1608 George Wiffen Northumberland Fusiliers is commemorated as one of the 33,783 names of servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, which forms the back-drop of Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeke, near Ypres Belgium. The memorial is dedicated to all those who died on the Ypres salient as of August 15th 1917 to 1918 who have no known grave.
His widow Annie received all monies due to him, his awards of the British War Medal and Victory Medal sent to her at 3, White Street, Felling, Gateshead and a pension for herself and their only son until she married in 1919 at Gateshead William G. Bailey with whom she had an only daughter Lillian born July 22nd 1920 (registered as mother Brunton).
Annie Bailey-Wiffen nee Brunton died aged 56 in 1944, registered in the district of Darlington. George Stanley Wiffen died in 1882 at Havering, Greater London aged 73 years, his half-sister Lillian Bailey never married and died at Gateshead aged 74 years in 1994.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
Heslop’s Local Advertiser 24/11/1917 carries a notice which reads:
“Lance-Corporal George Wiffen, N.F., killed in action, Oct. 12th, aged 37 years. Husband of Anne Wiffen, White Street, Felling, and second son of James and Isabella Wiffen of Havelock Street, Felling.”
George Wiffen is remembered in Felling on F32.01 and in the Regimental Roll of Honour
