1/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
George Victor Cummings Pepperell was born in late 1892 in Gloucester. He was one of three sons born to William H and Ada Eliza Pepperell. William was a hairdresser, whose business was at 5 Worcester Street, Gloucester and at the time of the 1911 Census George was a hairdresser’s assistant in the family business.
George had served with the Territorials for four years prior to the start of the Great War. He was embodied on the 26 August 1914 into the 1/5th Glosters and proceeded for training to Chelmsford on 1 September. According to his Medal Index Card he arrived in France on 29 March 1915 and appears to have served abroad until at least 24 July 1916. His Silver War Badge record indicates that his final discharge from the Army was on 7 August 1916, due to sickness and the few papers surviving from his Pension Record indicate that this was due to an on-going bladder problem, aggravated by military service.
The Gloucester Journal of 10 February 1917 carried a funeral report and death notice. This stated that he had died on 4 February after a long and painful illness ‘contracted during a long spell in the trenches in France’; he was 24 years old. A recently released Pension Record Card states that this was pulmonary tuberculosis and exhaustion. The funeral held on 8 February 1917, at Barnwood Churchyard, was a semi-military affair. The report noted that his brother Hubert was absent, being on active service in France. It is believed that he enlisted on 8 June 1915 and served with the 2/5th Glosters, surviving the war and until discharge on 11 March 1919.
Private George Pepperell is buried in Barnwood (St Lawrence) Churchyard, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 15 July 2015 (revised 6 August 2021)