Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
The Grainger family, from Pudsey in Yorkshire, was another family that migrated to Australia in stages. By 1909, insurance collector George Grainger (Snr), his wife Ruth and their seven children had migrated to Australia and settled in Auburn. In 1911, George (Snr), Ruth and their children still at home moved into Stanningley, Cornwall Road, Auburn.
Three of their sons, Alfred, George (Jnr) and Tom, are listed for service in the First World War on three Auburn honour rolls: The Auburn Temporary Honour Roll erected in South Parade, the Auburn Methodist Church Honour Roll and the Municipality of Auburn Honour Roll 1914-1919.
Oldest brother Alfred did not join the AIF. He sailed for England in June 1915 and married Sarah Wild in North Brierley in Yorkshire on 21 September 1915. After a brief honeymoon, Alfred enlisted in the 245th Battery, West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He survived the war and he and Sarah returned to Australia on the Orsova, arriving in Auburn in January 1920.
Private George Grainger (Jnr), 21, a painter, was in the AIF for eight months. Enlisting on 4 January 1916, He arrived in Egypt in May 1916, but as most of the Australian troops had already left for the Western Front, his ship continued to Britain, where he was placed in a training battalion at Perham Downs on the Salisbury Plains. Crossing to France, George Jnr marched into the 4th Battalion on 12 August 1916, eight months after enlistment. He was killed in action five days later, during the savage fighting around Pozières and Mouquet Farm. His surname was inscribed on the Auburn War Memorial incorrectly as Granger, one of the nine name misspellings on the memorial.
Of the 23 Auburn Memorial men killed in the early stage of the Battle of the Somme, only eight have a known grave. Three of them, Private George Grainger, Private Archibald McSparron and Private Clyde Davis lie in the Puchevillers British Cemetery, located in the AIF’s allocated area immediately west of the battle-gateway town of Albert.
For his gravestone, his family chose the inscription: WORTHY OF LOVE MAY HIS REWARD BE GREATER THAN HIS SACRIFICE
George Jnr's younger brother, Tom, survived the war. Tom Grainger, 28, enlisted in Auburn on 19 April 1918 and embarked on the Field Marshall exactly two months later. Arriving in London on 28 August 1918, Tom was in a training battalion at Fovant on the Salisbury Plain when the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918. Crossing to Le Havre in France, he was taken on strength of the 35th Battalion on 3 December 1918. For the next six months, Tom had escort duty Le Havre to Southampton. As he had not crossed to France before the armistice, Tom received only the British Service medal, not the Victory Medal.
George Grainger is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Methodist Church First World War Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal
