2/Lt. E.G. Lord

2nd Lieutenant Evelyn Geoffrey                      LORD

Personal: Evelyn (Geoffrey) was born in Manchester in the December quarter 1886, the only son of Charles (Solicitor) and Evelyn (née Knott) Lord of ‘Oak Lawn’, Manchester Road, Ashton-under-Lyme. (1891 Census gives his name as “Geoffrey”, RG 12/3281)

In 1901 (Census RG 13/3016) he was a Boarder at Uppingham School, Rutland, where he remained until 1905.

In 1911 (Census RG 14/23781) Geoffrey was employed as a “Solicitor’s Articled Clerk” and boarding at 1 Brighton Grove, Rusholme, Manchester, the home of the Whittaker family.

The same Census (RG 14/21246) shows his parents and sister, Dorothy (left), residing at ‘The Marquis of Granby Hotel’, Bamford, Derbyshire. Geoffrey was called to the Bar on the 28th August 1912.

On 17th May 1917 Dorothy married Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Benton JOHNSON in Buxton, but Geoffrey was unable to attend her wedding, as as he was “on active service“. 

Geoffrey married Marietta Adelaide Augusta Godbey in the March quarter 1915 in Holborn, London. At the time of his death in Worsley Hall Red Cross Hospital his address was given as 14 Jubilee Place, Chelsea, Middlesex. 

In reporting his death on the 29th June 1918 ‘The Buxton Advertiser’ gave Geoffrey’s parents’ address as “Wood Edge, Buxton“. By 1919 his sister, Dorothy, had also moved in with them following the death in 1917 of her husband, Lt. Col. Cyril Benton Johnson (see below).

The ‘Register of Soldiers’ Effects’ shows that in May/June 1919 an amount of £109 11s 8d [£109.58] was returned to Geoffrey’s wife, Marietta. This has an equivalent value of about £5,000 today – 2020. Following probate she also received £4,899.12s.7d (£4899.63). [Approx. £250,000 in modern terms – 2020]

Marietta never re-married and the 1939 Register shows her as an in-patient at Peckham House Private Mental Hospital, 112 Peckham Road, London, S.E.15. She died, aged 76, in August 1960 and was buried in Chingford Mount Cemetery on the 17th.

    Geoffrey’s Grave and St Mark’s Churchyard, Worsley

Military Service: Geoffrey was Gazetted on 25th October 1916 from Cadet to 2nd Lieutenant in The Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) (London Gazette, 21st November 1916). His Medal Index Card states that he entered into War service on 17th March 1917.

The 37th Battalion was part of the 12th (Eastern) Division by the 4th February 1916, and Geoffrey would have joined the Battalion in time to take part in the Battle of Arras in April 1917.

Geoffrey’s 37th Battalion moved into No 12 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, on the 1st March 1918. Whether or not he was still with them or what happened after that is not known, nor when he returned to the U.K. or for what reason.

However, a number of his comrades in the 37th were killed in action on dates coinciding with The Battle of the Avre, 4th April 1918, and The Battle of the Ancre, 5th April 1918 – the end of the ‘Michael offensive‘. It is possible he was wounded then – but at the moment this is only speculation.

Geoffrey died on 25th June 1918 in Worsley Hall Red Cross Hospital (left), following an operation, although the ‘Register of Soldiers’ Effects’ suggests “Gas“. 

Geoffrey was buried in Worsley Cemetery on 28th June 1918, though it is not clear if this was because of family connections – his gravestone would suggest so – or whether it was the most convenient location.

He is not, however, commemorated on the village War Memorial in St Mark’s Churchyard.