More about George Crichton

For reasons unknown George is not listed on the original Dundee Roll of Honour.

DUNDEE FUSILIER KILLED.

To the list of young Dundee lads whose careers have been cut short since the outbreak of war falls to be added Private Geo. Crichton, of the 13th Northumberland Fusiliers.

Crichton was wounded at the front, and had been drafted to Tring Hospital, Hertfordshire, where he died.

Deceased, whose parents reside at 186 High Street, Lochee, was employed in Newcastle when war broke out, and he forthwith answered his country’s call.

Dundee Courier 13th February 1915

Bucks Herald
20th. February 1915

Six months ago, George Crichton was living a quiet, uneventful life at Lochee, a busy suburb of Dundee, following his calling as a plumber in the mines which provide employment for a large portion of the population. At the outbreak of the war he responded to his country’s appeal for men, and enlisted in Kitchener’s Army.
“He came obedient to the call,
He did not shirk”
and to-day he sleeps in a soldier’s grave in Tring Cemetery, more than 400 miles from his home and his own people.
Private Crichton, who was 30 years of age, was in early life an enthusiastic Volunteer, but, on the merging of the Volunteers into the Territorials, he severed his connection with the force, and, at the time the war broke out, he was looking forward to settling down and making a home for himself.
On joining the army, he was drafted into the 13th. Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, who are training in the Tring district. Until quite recently, the “D” Company, to which he belonged, was billeted at Wilstone and, on Saturday, February 6th., moved into billets at Tring.
Private Crichton, who had just come out of the Royal Bucks Hospital at Aylesbury, where he was under treatment for tonsillitis, was quartered on Mr. and Mrs. J. Sheppard in Longfield Road. On Monday, he went for a route march with his Company, but had to fall out and return to his billet. Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard did all that was possible for him but, his condition becoming worse, the military authorities were communicated with, and, on Wednesday evening, he was removed to Tring military hospital, where he died about two hours after his admission. The circumstances of death were communicated to the Coroner for the district, but no inquest was held.
As Private Crichton died on active service, it was decided to bury him with military honours. The men in his company raised a subscription amongst themselves to defray some of the expenses of the interment, and all united to pay honour to their departed comrade. Private Crichton’s parents travelled to Tring with the intention of taking their son back to Lochee for burial, but, when they knew of the preparations made by his comrades, they decided to allow the funeral to take place in Tring. In spite of the wet, stormy weather on Saturday afternoon, the funeral procession was a most impressive one.
Garrison military police walked first and the firing party, with arms reversed, and the buglers and drummers preceded the glass hearse on which the coffin, draped with the Union Jack, was carried. On the coffin was the deceased soldier’s cap, bayonet, and belt, and a wreath. The men of the 13th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, with Captain T. Stephen Palmer and the other officers and N.C.O.s of “D” Company, followed the hearse. A detachment of the R.A.M.C. from the military hospital and other soldiers billeted in the town joined in the procession, which moved at a slow march to the Parish Church. Here the cortege was met by the Rev. Kenneth Kirk, chaplain to the Engineers, and the Rev. H. Francis, vicar of Tring. The mourners were Mr. and Mrs. Crichton, father and mother of the deceased. and Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard. The body was borne into the church by six of the deceased soldier’s comrades, Corpl. H. Wright, A.S.C. from the 21st Divisional Central Office, meanwhile playing “O rest in the Lord.” The service commenced with the hymn “For ever with the Lord” and the lesson was read by the Rev. H. Francis. The Rev. Kenneth Kirk then said the prayers and the procession left the church as the last strains of the “Death March” from “Saul” were being played. Outside the church the procession re-formed, and proceeded to the New Cemetery, where the concluding part of the service was recited by the Rev. Kenneth Kirk. After the last prayer, the firing party discharged a triple volley across the open grave, the buglers sounded “The Last Post”, and the solemn ceremony ended.
Mr. and Mrs. Crichton asked to be allowed to say how much they were consoled by the great kindness shown by his officers and comrades to their son and how sincerely they appreciated the sympathy extended on all sides to themselves.

N.B. The poem at the beginning of the obituary was published in the magazine Punch, on the 4th. November 1914 (author unknown.)