Loades, Sergt. George William

George William Loades was born in a house on the site of, what is now, the newly built George Loades Court, off Newport Road in Hemsby, in 1893. He died fighting in France. He is listed on the 1911 census as working as a game keeper, but after that he joined his local regiment, the Norfolk Regiment in Great Yarmouth, and was posted to the 7th Battalion. With his battalion he landed in France on 30th May 1915, taking part in the final phase of the Battle of Loos.

This battle was the largest British offensive mounted in 1915 on the Western Front during the First World War and marked the first use of poisonous gas by British forces. On 13th October 1915, the 7th Norfolks led the 35th Brigade into a renewed attack on German positions known as the Action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. They did succeed in capturing the gun trench and the south western face of the Hulluch Quarries, but were not able to advance further. The division lost 117 officers and 3,237 men were killed or wounded.

British casualties at the Battle of Loos were around twice as high as German casualties and it was on this day that Sergeant Loades was killed.

His body was never recovered and his name is listed among the 20,000 names on the Loos memorial as well as on the war memorial in the church grounds of St, Mary the Virgin on The Street, Hemsby. 

First World War Memorial, Hemsby.