George Henry Betteridge was born in Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1881. He was the son of George and Martha Betteridge and he became a gardener like his father.

In 1901, George was in Hursley and he married Mabel Kate Sheppard the following year.

By 1911, they were living in Crows Cottage in Farringdon with their three children - George Henry Horace, Muriel Elaine and Beryl Gladys Kate.

It was said in 1917 that George had lived at Upper Farringdon for 9 years - 6 of them employed in the village as a gardener by Mrs Caroline Kennedy of Denyears. She was the grandmother of the journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy.

George enlisted at Alton in the Dorset Regiment as 18156 Private Betteridge and was then transferred to the Wiltshire Regiment.

26586 Private Betteridge was wounded in the 3rd Battle of Ypres on 31st July 1917 and then brought back to University Hospital in Southampton where he died on the 19th October, aged 36, leaving a widow and five children. He was entitled to the British War and Victory Medals.

His parents moved to Newbury in Berkshire and his widow lived in Water Lane, Totton, Southampton. Private George Henry Betteridge was buried in Ealing (St Mary) Churchyard Extension.

Source: “The Remembered Ones of the Great War”, 2014, The Alton and Villages Local History Forum (with permission)