George Darton is one of two brothers named on the plaques in St Mellitus Church. George returned from the war, but sadly his brother Joseph did not.

George was born in 1887, the son of George Darton and his wife Hannah, nee Turner; Joseph (known as Joe) was his younger brother and he had three younger sisters – Ethel, Emily and Grace. He had an older half-brother, Arthur Turner, who emigrated with his wife Annie to America in 1906 and lived there for the rest of his life.

George was a volunteer soldier for a number of years before the war. On 24 January 1907, at St George’s Barracks in London, he enlisted in the Army Reserve, becoming a Sapper in the Royal Engineers Railway Reserve. His occupation is given as Platelayer, which is a man who lays the railway track. His father had been a Foreman Platelayer. George signed up for six years and served five years 364 days; he was discharged on 23.1.1913 on ‘termination of engagement.’  War was still over a year away.

In September 1908 George married Sarah Emily Stevens and moved from 5 Clifton Terrace in Finsbury Park to set up home close by at 95 Moray Road. He was working as a ‘Grocery and Provincial Clerk’. His daughter Doris was born in 1909 and Mazie was born in 1915. In the 1911 census George is listed as a carpenter

It has not proved possible to identify George’s military service after 1913. Former volunteers often joined up though George was a little older than many at 27 in 1914. He was 29 when conscription was introduced in 1916. Originally, in January, it applied to single men aged 18-41 so would not have included George, but it was extended to married men in May 1916. The Military Service Act exempted the medically unfit, clergymen, teachers and certain classes of industrial worker, so George may have been exempt, but he seems unlikely to have been included on the New Court Chapel plaque if that had been the case. We hope that information about George’s war service may yet be found.