George Speer was a Londoner,a Bermondsey boy,the eldest of 3 brothers in a typically large family. George was the first to join up,and the first to be killed.
He was killed when his gun position came under counter battery fire at the beginning of the Battle of Polygon Wood.His comrades carried his body to Dickebusch and he was buried in The Huts Cemetery.
In March 1917 his brother Harold was killed at Arras aged 23 and the youngest brother Jack was killed at the Somme just 10 weeks before the end of the war.
George Willam Speer,The Huts Cemetery
His mother unveiled the Bermondsey War Memorial on 8th October 1921 as it was felt more fitting that the mother who had lost 3 sons do this rather than a Lord,General or member of the Royal Family.
