George Emmitt was born just before Christmas 1896 in Deptford to plumber Charlie and wife Nelly. He was their only son – his sisters were Kathleen, Iris, Jennie and Alice and also Eleanor and Elsie who both died in infancy.
George and his family had not been in Canada for very long in search of a new life when War came and he volunteered for the Canadian Infantry, landing in France in time for the Battle of the Somme in 1916, which he somehow came through all right.
The Will he made out before getting to the Front specified unusually that in the event of his death, he wished for £20 to be sent to “my friend Annie, 64 Grange Avenue, Toronto” and the rest of his estate to his Mum.
But the huge push at Vimy on 9th April 1917 would be his last fight, killed that day aged 20 with his machine gun team at Vimy and buried now in the tiny, lovely cemetery called Givenchy Road.
His Mum and Dad came up with this beautiful epitaph for their only boy.