George Grantham ANDERSON

George Anderson was born on 1 November 1888 in Armagh, Ireland. His parents were John William and Charlotte Sophia (née Grantham) Anderson. He attended Scotch from 1903 to 1906. George was in the First football team in 1904, 1905 and 1906. The 1906 team won the premiership. He was also in the First rowing VIII in 1905 and 1906. He was a Prefect in 1906. ‘G.G.’ was noted at Scotch for what The Scotch Collegian called his ‘bright manner and cheery disposition’.

George was a medical practitioner when he enlisted in August 1914 in the United Kingdom. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, with attachments to the 37th Brigade, RFA and 51st General Hospital (British Army) with the rank of Major.

George died on 3 November 1918 at Etaples, France. He was 30 years of age.

Service record

George, whose name was often written ‘G. Grantham Anderson’ and who at school and university was also called ‘G.G.’, received a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1911. He left for England early in 1914, and when war broke out was a house surgeon at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London.

He enlisted in the British Army as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and sailed for France in late August 1914. He seems to have become attached as surgeon to the 37th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, though one source says he was initially a Regimental Medical Officer (a less exalted position). He was promoted to Major. He was later appointed to hospital work at Havre, and then became a specialist at Etaples, where he was reportedly in charge of ‘organisation and direction of a large hospital’, apparently No. 51 General Hospital.  He died suddenly there on 3rd November 1918, two days after his 30th birthday and barely a week before the armistice. Some sources date his death as 4 November, though the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Australian War Memorial give 3 November.

The Scotch Collegian speculated that ‘perhaps the strenuous work that he was called upon to perform recently during the terrible air-raids, which occurred so frequently at Etaples during the latter months of the war, hastened his early death’. A Red Cross Wounded and Missing file shows that George died of bronchial pneumonia. His epitaph, inserted at his wife’s direction, reads: ‘Husband of Eileen/ Father of/ Graham Grantham Anderson’. That son, Graham, would also attend Scotch, and would be killed serving in the Second Australian Imperial Force in Egypt in World War II. Both father and son were only sons. Eileen Anderson died in 1947, aged 55.

George Anderson is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery, Grave XLVIII. D. 10.

Sources:

1. ‘Anderson GG’, Empire Call website
2. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour and Red Cross Wounded and Missing file
3. Mishura Scotch Database
4. National Archives of Australia – B2455,
5. Scotch Collegian 1918