b. 08/10/1870 Dudley, Staffordshire. d. 04/08/1912 Barrow in Furness, Cumbria.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 04/08/1912 Barrow in Furness, Cumbria.
George was the second of seven children of Henry and Elizabeth Bagnall (nee Mansell), and grew up in Dudley. When George was four in 1874, due to Henry’s work, the family moved north to Barrow in Furness. Sadly, George’s father died when he was 15, and his mother remarried soon afterwards to Charles Jones, who worked in a local iron foundry. In 1896, George married Annie Maud Nolan and they had four children – Florence, Walter, Elizabeth and Sidney.
EM CITATION:
On the 4th August, 1912, a gas flue, which is a thousand yards long and 6 feet in diameter, was in process of cleaning at the Barrow Hematite Steel Company’s works, when a workman engaged in the operation entered the tube contrary to orders to recover a broken rake. He was immediately overcome by the gas, as were also two fellow workmen, William Ackred and George Bagnall, who went to his assistance. Harry Parsons twice entered the flue at great risk to his life, and, with the help of Ernest Cannell, Thomas Evans and John Robinson, succeeded in bringing out the three men, who had been overcome and who all unhappily lost their lives.
BURIAL LOCATION: BARROW CEMETERY AND CREMATORIUM, BARROW, CUMBRIA.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.