Private George Love
30th Battalion, AIF
Service Number: 2675
Born: 1884 Walsall, Staffordshire, England
Died: 30 September 1917, Poperinghe, Belgium
George Love was born in 1884 at Walsall, Staffordshire in England, the son of Benjamin and Susanna Love. He migrated to Australia on the Ceramic arriving in February 1914. Love was employed as a draper before his enlistment and was living at Mulgrave near Windsor.
Love enlisted at Liverpool on 22 January 1916 and was allocated to the 5th Reinforcements, 30th Battalion. On 4 March a send-off party was held at Emu Plains for Love and a number of his Emu Plains friends who had enlisted, including Irwin and Edward Bunyan, Robert McGinness and Reg McLean. They were each presented with a leather money belt. After some training at the Liverpool camp the 30th Battalion left Sydney on 9 April on HMAT Nestor and arrived in Alexandria, Egypt for another few months of training. Love embarked with his unit in Alexandria on 6 June 1916 on board HMT Franconia bound for England.
The Battalion moved to France in July 1916 and was immediately involved in the Battle of Fromelles. It went on to fight at Armentieres, Bapaume, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Amiens and on the Hindenburg Line. Love joined his battalion at Etaples in France in September. In December he was suffering from trench feet and was hospitalised and sent back to England to recuperate. He was discharged at the end of January 1917.
By June, Love was back in France. On 29 September, he was wounded in the field with a gunshot wound to the back and was admitted to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. He died the next day.
Love left a will in which his mother, who was still living in Walsall, received his estate.
Memorial Details:
- Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium
- War memorial, Emu Plains
- Honor Roll, Emu Plains Public School
Sources: