b. 1889 Redditch, Worcestershire. d. 22/08/1916 France.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 27/04/1913 Redditch, Worcestershire.
George F Irish AM
George was the third child of Joseph and Elizabeth Irish (nee Potter). Sadly, his father died in 1905 when he was just 16, and George became a carter working the area of Tardebigge, between Redditch and Bromsgrove. He received his AM from King George V at Buckingham Palace on August 12th 1913. He enlisted in the 14th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment at the outbreak of World War I. He was killed in action on 22nd August 1916 and his name is on the Thiepval Memorial as his body was not recovered.
AM CITATION:
On the 27th April, 1913, while young children were playing at Redditch, Worcestershire, on a piece of ground through which a sewer was being carried, a boy, one of their number, fell into the sewer and disappeared. Attracted by the children’s cries Irish ran to the spot, where the sewer was open for some 30 or 40 yards. The boy was not to be seen, but the place where he had fallen in having been pointed out, Irish jumped into the sewer, which was 2 feet wide and 14 feet deep with perpendicular sides, and with some difficulty succeeded in finding the child in the water at. the bottom. He lifted him out and found him to be insensible. The water was level with the rescuer’s head, and owing to the narrowness of the sewer and the steepness of the sides he was unable to climb out, so he had to support the boy until assistance arrived. The child was apparently dead, but by the aid of artificial respiration he was brought round and recovered.
BURIAL LOCATION: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL, THE SOMME, FRANCE.
PIER 5A AND 5B.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: FAMILY.
Acknowledgement:
Allan Stanistreet – Image of George Irish AM.