Private George Metcalfe Wigglesworth

1. Private, 10th Battalion, Infantry (Army).
2. Private (Army).

Military Medal
Date of award: 1918-11-11
Source: 10th Battalion War Diary of that date.

From George Wigglesworth - June 2006

883583 Pte GMW attested to the 187 Bn of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on June 13th 1916 at Gadsby, Alberta when he was 27 years old. He was a slight, small man, 125 lbs, 5’3" with a 331/2 chest, brown eyes and black hair. From his dental records he either had perfect teeth or ‘remake’ implies he had dentures. That he was recorded as Church of England will come as a surprise to those who knew him later, but knowing the conventions of army service this means little. [His mother gave him a bible when he went to Canada and dated April 12th 1913 which she had been given on leaving school. This bible gives the birth dates of his parents and siblings] He was paid a dollar a day with 10 cents field allowance and assigned 15$ a month to his mother in Leeds. Having come from Milford camp in England he was discharged as fit from the 10th Infantry Bn on April 23rd 1919 at Calgary. Those who knew his later life will recall his poor sleep and suppose it was one of the effects of war service the army does not recognise.
He sailed from Halifax to Liverpool on the SS Olympic on the 20th Dec 1916 and joined the 202 Bn at Whitley camp going to France on May 22nd 1917 with the 10th Bn. and getting 14 days leave in February . He was wounded twice, the first time to his left forearm on March 19th but on the March 23rd more seriously to his right forearm. He reported to the 6th Casualty Clearing Station. He spent one month in hospital from March 31st 1918 at Ipswich recovering from this wound variously described as caused by shrapnel or a bullet but according to the army this left no disability. He convalesced at Epsom for ten days and went to France again on Sept 5th.. He was awarded the Military Medal on Nov 9th 1918 which was gazetted on August 5th 1919.

Private Wigglesworth died in 1974, however, month and day is not known .

Note: CEF documents spell middle name as Metcalf instead of the correct Metcalfe.

From George Wigglesworth - June 2006

George and his brother Fred Rothwell Wigglesworth were born in Embsay (near Skipton) going to school there and subsequently in Skipton, Wetherby and Leeds. Both their grandfathers were dead, their maternal grandfather Richard Metcalfe, a farmer coming from Ingleton, age 38, of dropsy, his middle daughter having died before him probably from diphtheria. Their maternal grandfather from Blackburn, George Wigglesworth, died of tuberculosis before his son was born.
The father was a grocer, learning the trade in Embsay and running his own shop in Skipton. His mother and mother in law had both married again to inn keepers, the one at The Elm Tree, Embsay the other at the Devonshire Arms, Cracoe. The re-marriage of his mother seems to have led to him needing to seek employment eventually managing a grocer’s shop at 22 Royal Park Road, Leeds. The family consisted of 5 boys (Fred had an elder brother) and two girls, the middle of the girls dying of tuberculosis when she was twelve