George Edward Coxhill was born in Northchurch, Hertfordshire on Wednesday, 14th April 1886 the third son and sixth child born to Charles Coxhill and Ruth Impey, who had sixteen children in total over a period of twenty-nine years. This impressive brood were Mary Ellen, John William Edward, Sarah Jane, Robert William, Emma Jane, George Edward, Elizabeth Ethel, Minnie (Mary) Elizabeth, Jess, James, Lilly, twins Annie and Jennie, Willie (Charles William) and Dorothy Bessie. Jess and Emma Jane died in 1894 aged two and one respectively, Jennie in 1898 days after birth, and John in 1911 aged thirty-five and one other unknown child died in infancy. One of George’s older brothers Bob fought in the Great War with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and died as a result of his wounds in 1917. His biography appears on this site. A younger brother James also served with the RAMC and survived the conflict. When George was six in 1891, his family lived at “Canal Side” in Berkhamsted and his father Charles worked on the railways but later the same year the Coxhills came to Boxmoor near Hemel Hempstead and set up home at 52 St. John’s Road.

George entered the local school, Boxmoor JMI when he successfully negotiated five of the seven school “Standards” before leaving on the 25th February 1898 to start work as an “Errand Boy”. By the time of the next census in 1901, he had found employment as a “Groom” and as a fifteen-year-old had begun to display his sporting talents. He was already a regular player with his local football team, Boxmoor and shortly afterwards started playing for a successful Apsley F.C. with whom he remained until he went to work in Leavesden Asylum as an “Attendant” and immediately joined the football team there. He was by this time a well-known footballer in local circles and as his obituary would later note, “was universally admired for his sportsmanlike and cheery qualities”.

Shortly after starting work at Leavesden, he met Lilian Lucy Lloyd a nurse who had come to work in the hospital in 1907 and the two soon became sweethearts. They were married in the summer of 1910 in Hemel Hempstead and a year later their first child was born, a daughter whom they named Minnie Madeline and their only son John Edward appeared in 1919. They had moved into 19 Asylum Cottages in the grounds of Leavesden Hospital as soon as they were married which George’s older brother Bob, who also worked at the Hospital, had occupied with his wife immediately before the newlyweds moved in.

On the outbreak of war, George volunteered almost immediately when he attested at Watford in September 1914 and enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). By the time he joined up he had qualified as a “Nurse” and he was posted to 77th Field Ambulance to undergo basic training near Salisbury Plain. The following year on the 27th September George went to France with his unit. Over the next year he saw action at Vimy Ridge and the Somme, but in April 1917 he began to suffer from a persistent cough and general weakness which was initially thought to be Bronchitis. However, his symptoms developed and worsened until he was admitted to hospital in France on the 11th December and shortly afterwards on the 20th, evacuated to England and taken to Bermondsey Military Hospital. George was diagnosed with Tuberculosis as a result of exposure and infection which was deemed to be directly attributable to his war service. Although he made progress and improved somewhat, his health did not recover enough to return to duty, and he was honourably discharged from the Army on the 25th March 1918 and categorised “Physically unfit for war service”. He returned to his wife and daughter at Leavesden, but his respiratory problems continued for the next two years until he finally passed away. The cause of his death was recorded as “Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Heart Failure” brought on by his war service.

George was buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence parish church in Abbotts Langley and a brief report of his funeral was published in the Hemel Gazette shortly afterwards.

He died of his wounds on Sunday, 20th April 1920.

George is Remembered with Honour in Abbots Langley (St. Lawrence) Churchyard, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, where he is interred in Grave 451. (N.E. Plot).. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Lilian, reads: “JESU GRANT THAT WE MAY MEET THERE ADORING AT THY FEET”.

He was 34 years old when he died.

George is entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.