Private George Wharton

Private George Wharton, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action in France during the Battle of the Somme on 16th July 1916, aged 19. He was the son of George and the late Jane Wharton of Holmside Cottage, Norham and is buried in Ridge Wood Military Cemetery, Somme, France. His Headstone is inscribed ” Death Divides But Memory Clings “. He was one of the Battalion bombers and was killed whilst in the act of throwing bombs into the German trenches. Before the war he was a fisherman on the River Tweed and had enlisted at a recruiting meeting held in Norham. The photographs show troops on the Somme. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as a Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby the Division had fought its first action of the War on 26th April 1915 during the Battle of St. Julien only days after landing on the Continent.