Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

PERRYMAN George Adolphus : Service Number - 4248 : Place of Birth - Port Macdonnell SA : Place of Enlistment - Keswick SA : Next of Kin - (Sister) PERRYMAN Elizabeth

George Adolphus Perryman had just turned 40 yo (DoB May 1875)  when he enlisted on the 28th June 1915,  He was enlisted into the 13th Reinforcements of the 10th Battalion.  He had previous naval service and had served in China. 

On disembarkation in Egypt he was transferred to the 50th Battalion which had been newly raised by 'spawning' it fropm the 10th Battalion.  George was one of the new reinforcements who complemented the experienced Officers NCO and soldiers transferred in from the 10th Battalion.

George was successively promoted over the coming months as the Battalion moved to France and then in July after a brief period near Armentieres, the 50th Battlion and its parent Division, the 4th, moved to the Somme to reinforce the failed British offensive.  They took up positions near Pozieres and then were engaged in the five weeks of fighting that cost the AIF 23,000 casualties, of whom 5,000 were killed.

George Perryman was to be one of them. Having survived the frst phase which culminated in the capture by the 4th Division, of hte "Windmill" at Pozieres, the momentum swung towards Mouquet Farm, or "Moo Cow Farm" as it was known to the Diggers.

George was declared Missing in Action on 16 August 1916 -near Mouquet Farm.  This was the second phase of the fighting at Pozieres. While Pozieres had been ultimately successful, the intended outflanking of the German positons at Thiepval was not ableto be achived by the Australians, which was the aim of the attempt to take Mouquet Farm.  Artillery had defined the fighting over the five weeks of this ill-starred campaign and it seems it was shell fire that claimed George Perryman's life.

Witnesses variously report that George Perryman was in the Lewis Gun section of HQ Company of the Battalion and that he was killed by a shell (Corporal Penn via 4240 Sgt Richard Nelson of Murray Bridge).  Another 3870 Thomas Monaghan stated that he died of his wounds at a dressing station,  reported to him by a stretcher bearer named Kain.   Lt H J Burdon reported that he was told by a Pte Bampton that Corporal Perryman was seen dead with 'half his face blown off''. 4133 Private W.D. Campbell corroborated this 2nd hand; he had been a friend of Perryman's.  Pte Bampton's reports are the most comprehensive and are in the image gallery.

So George Perryman met a fate similar to so many of his collegues;  the almost random fate of being killed by enemy artillery fire.  It seems he died where he was hit together with his colleague Dawes.  However no record of George Perryman's burial is recorded so he is defined as Missing in Action.  Accordingly he is commemorated on the Wall of Remembrance at Villers Brettoneux.

Steve Larkins  March 2014

During 1937, in the course of exhumation work in the vioinity of Pozieres, the Imperial War Graves Commission was successful in recovering the remains of George Perrman, identified by his identity disc. The remains were interred in the London Cemetery Extension, High Wood, Longueval, France. The disc was returned to his sister, Elizabeth, of Port MacDonnell South Australia.