LANCE CORPORAL GEORGE MASKELL
ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT
2ND AUGUST 1917 AGE 22
BURIED: MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY, PROVEN, BELGIUM
At zero hour, 5.50 am, on the morning of 31 July 1917 the 6th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment attacked at Zillebeke as part of the opening of the Battle of Passchendaele. The battalion war diary recorded the details of how, after initial good progress, German aerial and artillery bombardment together with machine gun fire hampered the consolidation of their gains. However, a threatened counter-attack never materialised when the British artillery opened fire. The relief began at midnight on 1 August and was completed by 2.50 am.
Among the casualties were three officers and thirty-five soldiers killed, six who died of wounds, 177 wounded and twenty-seven missing. George Maskell died of his wounds on 2 August at a Casualty Clearing Station.
There are no family details for George Maskell in the War Graves Commission cemetery register but a Mrs S Maskell signed for his inscription. In both the 1901 and the 1911 census, George Maskell is living with his grandparents, Joseph and Sarah Maskell, and in neither of the censuses is there any mention of any parents. I would suggest therefore that the Mrs S Maskell who chose his inscription was Corporal Maskell's grandmother.