George Rankeillor was born in Edinburgh in 1897 to George senior, a rubber worker, and his wife Julia McDonald. He was the second eldest of 10 children.

Unfortunately, very little survives to tell us about his young life, or his army service, but we know that he arrived in France as a Private serving with the Royal Dragoons on 5 October 1915.

By 1917 George had been promoted to Lance Corporal, and at the beginning of April he was with his unit on the outskirts of Arras. It was bitterly cold, snowing and the war diary records blizzard conditions. During this time, the area came under very heavy shell fire, the Royal Dragoons were relatively lightly affected losing 68 horses and just two men. George was one of the two men killed.

In October 1919 two casualties of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons were recovered from unmarked field graves just north of Feuchy Chapel. One was identified as Private (Pte) J. Jordan who had died on 11 April 1917 whilst the other could only be identified as a member of the Royal Dragoons.

Recently, following a submission to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, all the records were drawn together for the first time and interrogated as one. This showed that Pte Jordan and the unknown soldier were buried in the same field grave, and therefore most likely died together. With only one man of the Royal Dragoons still missing from this area on this day, it has finally been possible to prove that the unknown soldier is L/Cpl George Rankeillor of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons.

A Rededication Ceremony took place at CWGC Feuchy Chapel British Cemetery, France on 19 March 2025, where a new Commission headstone bearing George's name was added to mark his final resting place.