George Drew

In memoriam

ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT CORPORAL DREW G.

13365 Corporal George Drew was Killed in Action on the 9th.May 1917 , Aged 28, while serving with the 7th.Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment. George was born in Bath, resided in Manor Park and had enlisted in Poplar. On the  15th September 1915,  the 7th.Battalion embarked for France as part of the 26th Division. In France the battalion were attached to other units for familiarization at Ailly sur Somme and Aubigny but on the 9th November they were posted to Salonika and departed from Marseilles on the 11th November on the MT Arcadian. They reached Alexandria on the 18th and Salonika on the 24th. At the end of the year the battalion were in trenches at Yailajik.  1916 For the first few months, the 7th were engaged in Training and by May they finished constructing the defensive line when they moved to Redan Camp where most of the men caught either dysentery or Malaria or both. On the 22nd July they started a march north to take over lines between Lake Doiran and the River Vardar which had been held by the French. The next few months were spent on patrols and capturing hills one by one with the odd raid on the Bulgar lines to capture prisoners. The Battalion was in the Front Line on Christmas Day.  1917 It was not until April 1917 that the 7th. began serious offensives. On the 24th   they were one of the assaulting battalions when a major attack was launched near Doiran. At the end of these operations the casualty figures were 16 killed, 225 Wounded and 36 missing.  The British infantry had began its attack on the night of 24–25 April. Twelve companies attacked the Bulgarian 2nd Brigade and, after a bloody fight, managed to take the "Nerezov," "Knyaz Boris," and "Pazardzhik" positions. After a Bulgarian counterattack, the British were repulsed with heavy casualties and, by 8 pm, had retreated. The British assaults on the right and central fronts were also repulsed with heavy casualties after help from the Bulgarian artillery. The British attacks in the next two days were defeated by constant Bulgarian fire and counterattacks. Due to this fire, the British withdrew to their initial positions on 27 April. The Bulgarians immediately started to reconstruct the destroyed fortifications. On the 9th May they took part in another major attack, which also that failed and they had 14 killed, 131 wounded and 9 missing. George was the son of Thomas George and Caroline Drew, of 60, Salisbury Rd., Manor Park, Essex.

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