George Edmund Ladbrook was born in Honington, a small Hamlet near Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire in November 1884. He was the eldest child of the eight children born to George Ladbrook, a gardener, and Fanny (née Gee).

After first moving to Dinton, Buckinghamshire, the family settled in Thame in the late 19th century, living in Bell Lane and later Park Terrace. In 1911 George Edmund was employed as a print compositor.

George was called up to the Gloucestershire Regiment, probably in the spring of 1916. He was posted to the 8th Battalion, serving with the 57th Infantry Brigade, joining them with one of the reinforcement drafts during the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme.

On 11th January 1917 his name appeared on the daily wounded casualty list. This was most likely to have happened during the Battalion’s last engagement on the Somme in the Battle of the Ancre in November 1916.

He returned to duty but died on 16th February 1917 whilst the Battalion was deployed in trenches opposite Serre in northern France, the scene of intense fighting the previous year during the Battle of the Somme.

George, age 33, was buried in a battlefield cemetery nearby. Two of his brothers also served during the war with the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry and both survived.

27637 Private George Edmund Ladbrook, Gloucestershire Regiment, is buried in Courcelles- Au-Bois Communal Cemetery, Somme. He is remembered in Thame on the War Memorial and on All Saints’ Church Memorial Board.