1656 Sergeant George Dullam Blackman of the 21st (County of London) Battalion (1st Surrey Rifles), The London Regiment, was killed in action on the 23rd May 1916. George was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, was living in Wallington and enlisted at Camberwell on the 4th August 1914. He was a time-expired volunteer with the 1st Surrey Rifles and was aged 31 years and one month. His surviving attestation paper (one page, above) in the WO 363 series at the National Archives notes that he was married and working as a clerk at the London Stock Exchange.
George arrived in France as a corporal on the 16th March 1915 and - unless he returned to England at any point before his death the following year - must have been promoted to sergeant whilst he was overseas.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that George was 32 when he died and that he was the husband of Beatrice Maud Blackman of 43 Courtfield Gardens, South Kensington, London. He had married Maud (nee Beckett) in the Wandsworth district of London in late 1909 or early 1910 and although I haven't found documentary evidence that the couple had children during their short marriage, it would seem likely that they did.
George Blackman has no known grave and is commemorated on bay 10 of the Arras Memorial in France.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Sources:
Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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