ABLE SEAMAN Z/6749 GEORGE HERBERT FEATHERSTONE, HOOD BATTALION ROYAL NAVAL DIVISION. KILLED IN ACTION 13TH NOVEMBER 1916.


ABLE SEAMAN Z/6749 GEORGE HERBERT FEATHERSTONE, HOOD BATTALION ROYAL NAVAL DIVISION. KILLED IN ACTION 13TH NOVEMBER 1916.


Tragedy would strike George and Annie Featherstone twice in the final weeks of 1916, when both their sons were killed on the Western Front.The first to die was their youngest son George Herbert who had volunteered for the Royal Navy on 8th August 1915 when just 18 years old.


The Royal Navy had a surfeit of recruits and it was decided that those who had no seaborne experience would be formed into infantry. Thus the Royal Naval Division was created with battalions named after famous admirals. George was assigned to the Hood Battalion and issued with standard army uniform. Initially destined for the Gallipoli front the battalion was redirected to France when that campaign ended. 

Sailors in Army uniform where not well received by the high command but, the casualty rate of the long Somme battle meant that the Naval Division would have to be utilised.
In October 1916 the Hood Battalion moved into the front line beside a stream called The Ancre, a tributary of The River Somme.


On the 13th November 1916 the Hood Battalion was to take part in an attack towards the village of Bancourt. The battlefield was now waterlogged after heavy autumn rains yet despite this the battalion performed well and achieved its objective. However, the casualty rate was severe and included George Featherstone.

 
George was born in Pateley Bridge and had been a gardener before the outbreak of war, probably working with his father. The family had not been long in Ilkley before the war started and had lived at 3 Ash Grove.

 Today, Able Seaman George Featherstone lies in Ancre British Military Cemetery and is remembered on Ilkley War Memorial


                                                       Ancre Cemetery (James Cooper)



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