L/7670 Pte George Flatt MM, 1st Middlesex Regiment

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Arrived overseas: 11 August 1914

Connection: Connection: 2nd Middlesex Regiment football team photo, 1912.

George Flatt's regimental number dates to late November or early December 1901 and he certainly saw service with the 3rd Middlesex Regiment during the Seocnd Anglo-Boer War, being awarded the QSA and KSA medals. By the time this photo of him was taken, he would have been approaching the end of his 12-year engagement and thus, to have arrived overseas in France on 11th August 1914 must have either re-engaged to complete 21 years' service with the regiment or opted for four years' service as a Section D Reservist. I suspect the former. He's probably the same 36-year-old out-of-work carman who appears on the 1921 census with his wife and three children, living at 28 Retreat Place, Hackney.

George was awarded the Millitary Medal for Bravery in the Field in 1916, the awarded gazetted on the 11th October 1916 which suggests either a retrospective award for 1914, The Battle of Loos in 1915, or the Battle of the Somme for July 1916.


   

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