Current Information:

Born-Nottinghamshire

Packhorse Farm Shrine Cemetery, Belgium

The 1/4th Leicestershire battalion arrived in France in March, 1915 where they joined 138 Brigade of 46th Division. On 28th April, 1915 they moved into trenches near Neuve Eglise (Nieuwkerke) in Belgium where George Heathcote was killed on 1st May the battalion diary provides no further information concerning his death. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.